Did Draymond Green stomp Domantas Sabonis on purpose?
Golden State Warriors player Draymond Green was ejected from their playoff game against the Sacramento Kings after he stomped on Kings’ Domantas Sabonis’ chest.
During the Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings playoff Game 2, Warriors forward Draymond Green was ejected for a flagrant foul. The offense? He stomped on the chest of Kings player Domantas Sabonis.
What happened between Green and Sabonis?
In the fourth quarter of the game on Monday night, Warriors player Stephen Curry had snagged a defensive rebound and Golden State headed for the other side. During the snag, Sabonis fell to the ground. He then grabbed Green’s ankle and as he struggled to move out of his grip, he sort of hopped up and then did the stomp on Sabonis’ chest.
Sabonis was called for a technical foul and Green was given a flagrant-2 foul and ejected from the game.
Though Green has a history of this kind of infraction (he was suspended in 2016 during the NBA Finals for having too many flagrant fouls), it’s actually unclear whether or not the stomp is intentional. In the video in the tweet above, from the closeup, it looks like it was. But on the second angle, it looks like it was merely the result of him stumbling trying to get away.
Green didn’t exactly say it was an accident, but did imply it was the result of being grabbed:
“My leg got grabbed. Second time in two nights,” he said. “I gotta land my foot somewhere”.
It also happens to be the second time Green has been ejected from a playoff game. Last season, he was ejected from Game 1 of their second round series against the Grizzlies for fouling and then throwing down Brandon Clarke.
Of course, the officials did not analyze too much. They called it “unnecessary and excessive” and gave him the foul and ejection. This actually wasn’t the first altercation between the two players. At the end of Game 1, Green kind of fell on top of and then sat on Sabonis. (Anyone else sensing a sort of weird trend here?)
As for Sabonis, he decided not to feed into the drama.
“It’s playoff basketball,” Sabonis said. “Look at the fans, this is it. We’re here to fight. Every time we step on the floor we’re gonna give everything for our teammates and the franchise. We’re both fighting for the rebound. We fell on each other, stuff happens, it’s basketball, we gotta move on, next play.”