Oklahoma City Thunder vs Golden State Warriors - Game 1 - Full Game Highlights | 2016 NBA Playoffs
TORONTO, Ontario -- The NBA suspended Cleveland Cavaliers bench player Dahntay Jones for one game for punching the Toronto Raptors Bismack Biyombo in the midsection in the waning moments of Cleveland"s first loss of the playoffs Saturday night.
Sunday night in Oklahoma City, Draymond Green gave the Thunder"s Steven Adams the second part of the old "one-two" when Adams" groin apparently leaped in front of Green"s foot.
The first part -- the old "one," came when Adam" groin intruded on the space reserved for Green"s knee in a game last Wednesday at Golden State.
Green, a former Michigan State player who, as the 35th pick in his draft year is one of the NBA"s great success stories, was not suspended despite being a serial below the belt striker.
The NBA supinely upgraded the call to a Flagrant Foul 2 and fined Green the equivalent of tip money for the maid at the typical NBA player"s Ode to Me mansion -- $25,000.
Kiki VanDeWeghe, the NBA dean of discipline, must have miscreants lining up happily outside his office, like college players at North Carolina for that class with no attendance requirement and no academic merit.
Personally, I agreed with VanDeWeghe"s view of the physical action in the Sunday incident, which was that Green was flailing his legs while trying to draw a foul call and did not mean to kick Adams.
On the first incident last Wednesday, a driving layup against Adams, Green cocked his knee like a fixed bayonet before crashing into Adams and releasing the shot.
To me, the track record of the volatile Green in this series and over the course of his career should have been a consideration.
To me, this sets a precedent for stars with a Charles Barkley cheap-shot disposition.
But the league has been leery of suspending impact players ever since former commissioner David Stern changed the course of the 2007 playoffs.
Phoenix"s Boris Diaw and Amar"e Stoudemire left the bench in the final minute of a series-tying Suns" victory in the fourth game, protesting Robert Horry"s hockey-style check of Suns" point guard Steve Nash.
The ruling eviscerated the Spurs, who claimed San Antonio center Tim Duncan left his team"s bench too, but not as aggressively. The incident occurred when the game had already been decided. It propelled the Spurs to the championship, won in a sweep of the Cavaliers.
Since then, players who are starters or in the rotation have received the benefit of the doubt.
J.R. Smith of the Cavs, however, did receive a two-game suspension after a Flagrant 2 foul and ejection when he elbowed Boston"s Jae Crowder in the biker bar rumble that was the fourth game of that opening series in 2015.
The instigator Crowder was not punished. Smith"s foul was more forceful than Green"s, felling the Boston swing man, but it was to a less sensitive area.Smith"s track record certainly was part of the decision.
The Warriors are NBA champions. Ratings are at stake. An epic dynasty for the 73-9 Warriors is on the line.
Perhaps the lenient Green ruling is part of the divine right of kings, and I don"t mean LeBron James.
Source: http://www.cleveland.com/livingston/index.ssf/2016/05/nba_fails_to_suspend_golden_st.html
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