NBA hands Draymond Green a 5-game suspension and fines Thompson, Gobert and McDaniels

Following the altercation between Klay Thompson and Jaden McDaniels on Tuesday, which resulted in a wider brawl between the Warriors and Timberwolves players, the NBA has finally decided on their punishment. While the first two mentioned will only receive fines for starting the fight, Draymond Green was handed a five-game suspension after holding Rudy Gobert in a chokehold.

The league made an official announcement this Wednesday night, further explaining their decision by saying that the Golden State forward “has been suspended five games without pay for escalating an on-court altercation and forcibly grabbing Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert around the neck in an unsportsmanlike and dangerous manner.”

According to the statement, the NBA took Green’s antecedents into consideration before defining his fate. “The length of the suspension is based in part on Green’s history of unsportsmanlike acts,” it reads.

Draymond Green has been suspended for five games after his altercation with the Timberwolves, per @wojespn pic.twitter.com/iN6EArvaYw

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) November 16, 2023

The rest of the players involved will be able to play for their teams in the upcoming matches. “In addition, Warriors guard Klay Thompson and Timberwolves forward Jaden McDaniels and center Rudy Gobert have each been fined $25,000 for their roles in the incident, which started when Thompson and McDaniels became entangled and were grabbing and pulling at one another’s jerseys,” they announced.

“Thompson and McDaniels were each assessed a technical foul and ejected, while Green was assessed a Flagrant Foul 2 and ejected,” the NBA added. “The incident occurred with 10:17 remaining in the first quarter of the Timberwolves’ 104-101 win over the Warriors on Nov. 14 at Chase Center. Green will begin serving his five-game suspension on Thursday, November 16 when the Warriors host the Oklahoma City Thunder.”

As for Steve Kerr, he defended both his players. “There’s no way Klay Thompson should’ve been thrown out of the game,” the Warriors coach said postgame. “I mean, he’s running up the floor, and the guy grabs his jersey, and he’s pulling on him, so Klay pulls back. No way Klay should’ve been ejected. That was ridiculous. So, I was upset about that.”

The Minnesota center described Draymond as having a “clown behavior” and gave himself credit for not escalating things further

Once the game was done, the press bombarded Rudy Gobert trying to understand what had just happened. The French big man went all out on Green, calling out his extreme behavior.

“Clown behavior, and I’m proud of myself for being the bigger man again and again,” said the Timberwolves center. “And yeah, [Green] doesn’t even deserve me putting my hands on him. My team needed me tonight. I did whatever I could to keep my cool and then show that I wasn’t making the situation worse, and I do hope that the league is going to do what needs to be done because that’s just clown behavior.”

The fight between Draymond and Rudy feels like long-time coming as they’ve been exchanging insults through social media for many years now. The last time something was said, was when Green got in a fight with former teammate Jordan Poole last year, and the French big man posted “Insecurity is always loud” on his social media.

Six months later the NBA champion used the same expression towards the Wolves star after he had an altercation with Kyle Anderson.