The Idea That Draymond Green Needs ‘Help’ Is Almost Offensive To People Who Actually Do

After making a career of low blows and dirty plays, the NBA finally put the hammer down on Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green by suspending him indefinitely.

Green’s latest suspension comes after he punched Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nurkic on Tuesday night. Almost more shocking than the punch itself was Green’s bald-faced lie during his postgame interview, as he claimed that he did not intend to hit Nurkic, which is frankly teetering on delusion.

In Adrian Wojnarowski’s reporting of Green’s suspension, the veteran ESPN insider said sources told him Green, Warriors GM Mike Dunleavy Jr., and Green’s agent Rich Paul of Klutch Sports are expected to meet Thursday to start discussing a path of counseling and help for Green to move forward.”

Woj continued to say that the NBA did not want to put a specific number of because they’d rather “allow Green to take the time he might need to deal with challenges he’s facing.”

And that sort of language — “path of counseling”, “help for Green”, “challenges he’s facing” — makes it seem as though Green is something of a victim, as if he’s suddenly having night terrors brought on repressed childhood trauma or is taking some time off to mourn the lost of a loved one following a freak accident.

But he’s not. He’s a 33-year-old man with hundreds of millions of dollars in the bank and a proven history of violent outbursts. This isn’t some deeply rooted patchy wiring in the depths of Green’s psyche — he’s just an a–hole. Most people learn to stop punching and kicking people when they’re, I don’t know, six years old?

To suggest that he needs help to figure out he needs to stop assaulting people is to ignore the fact that there have surely been plenty of players in the NBA who have had emotional or mental difficulties and did not manifest those struggles by routinely taking cheap shots at his opponents. Even Ron Artest/Metta World Peace eventually learned his lesson.

Not Green though. Because he’s just a dirty player on the court and an a–hole off it.  There are, unfortunately, people in this world who are just… like that. You know these people. It is who they are. Green certainly feels that way, as he reminded everyone of the unapologetic manner with which he conducts himself.

“As you know, I’m not one to apologize for things that I meant to do, but I do apologize to Jusuf because I didn’t intend to hit him,” Green said on Tuesday night after the incident.

Because of his famous lack of technical ability and reliance on grit and attitude, Green has likely come to fancy himself as something of a gladiator — a man whose sole job is to beat the other into submission in front of a roaring crowd. A warrior (pun intended) leading his men into battle.

But the actuality of Draymond Green is something much sadder. And that’s the reality that he’s ultimately a petulant millionaire who refuses to play by the rules and doesn’t have respect for his opponents or his teammates, distilling those two flaws by lashing out at others to fuel his own idea of himself as a tough guy. Nothing more, nothing less.