NBA suspends Warriors’ Draymond Green for five games

The NBA has suspended the Warriors’ Draymond Green for five games without pay after he jumped into the fray Tuesday night and put the Timberwolves‘ Rudy Gobert in a chokehold, dragging him away from trying to break up an altercation between Klay Thompson and Jaden McDaniels.

The NBA said in a statement Green was suspended for “escalating an on-court altercation and forcibly grabbing Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert around the neck in an unsportsmanlike and dangerous manner…

“The length of the suspension is based in part on Green’s history of unsportsmanlike acts.”

This was Green’s 19th ejection of his NBA career. Going five games without pay will cost Green $769,704, reports Bobby Marks of ESPN.

The altercation took place less than two minutes into the In Season Tournament game when Klay Thompson grabbed Jaden McDaniels’ jersey as part of a box out, which led to McDaniels pulling on Thompson’s jersey as they ran up the court, which progressed into a little scuffle. Gobert came in and grabbed Thompson, trying to break things up, Green rushed in and put Gobert in a WWE sleeper hold then dragged him away.

Gobert, Thompson and McDaniels each were fined $25,000.

Green is out until Nov. 28 when the Warriors will face the Kings, followed by a home-and-home with the Clippers. The Warriors also will be without Stephen Curry for at least Thursday’s game against Oklahoma City, and the team’s leading scorer could miss more time with a sore knee (he was out for Tuesday night’s loss to Minnesota as well).

The Warriors have long walked a line with Green — his passion and intensity are a large part of what made him the best defender of a generation. The Warriors don’t have their four rings without Green and what he brings to the table. However, as he has aged and his skills diminished, as the Warriors as a team have aged and the margin for error has eroded, the Warriors can no longer afford this kind of action that hurts the team. They can’t have this kind of distraction.

Golden State has been very good this year, the second- or third-best team in the West when healthy (depending on what you think of Minnesota), and they know what it takes to win. So long as Draymond’s antics don’t cut them off at the knees.