In a story that should shock no one, two of the league’s most hot-headed players in Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green and Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert got in an altercation Tuesday night. And, according to Gobert, it could have been a lot worse.
In case you haven’t seen it, here is the video of the altercation.
Draymond Green had Rudy Gobert in a sleeper hold pic.twitter.com/yivvAds10c
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) November 15, 2023
What is Draymond even doing here? This is just classic Draymond, getting involved in something he has no business getting involved in, and going way overboard. He should be suspended for not a short amount of time here. Not only is he a repeat offender of these kind of incidents, but he put his arms around another player’s neck. That’s incredibly irresponsible, and should result in a long timeout.
Rudy Gobert agrees. According to The Athletic, Gobert thinks the incident could’ve been much worse.
I could feel that it was him,” Gobert told The Athletic.
As Green applied the choke hold to Gobert to pull him off of Thompson, the Minnesota Timberwolves center tried to stay calm as everyone around him seemed to be losing their minds.
“He’s grabbing me, he’s grabbing me, he’s grabbing me,” Gobert recalled. “(But) the choke wasn’t good enough. Yeah, it wasn’t enough for me to really have to (go to sleep). But he tried. He tried really hard, but it wasn’t good enough to where I felt like I was really in danger of falling asleep or something like that.”
Green held Gobert for about nine seconds on Tuesday as assistant coaches, security staff and players tried to pry everyone apart and get control of a situation that erupted as the game between the Timberwolves and Golden State Warriors wasn’t even two minutes old.
“It was a long time, and if he knew how to choke it could have been way worse,” Gobert said. “He tried to. His intention was to really take me out. And I kept my hands up the whole time just to show the officials that I wasn’t trying to escalate the situation.”
I’d have to agree with Gobert here. Draymond clearly was over the top here, and overreacted to Gobert trying to smartly break up a potential fight between Klay Thomspon and Jaden McDaniels.
Gobert and the Wolves got the last laugh. Thompson, McDaniels, and Green were ejected, and the Wolves won, 104-101.
And, the NBA has suspended Green for five games, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.