Adam Silver heard all that chatter about the NBA refusing to suspend Draymond Green because they didn’t want to interfere with a competitive series. He doesn’t like it one bit.
Silver appeared on ESPN Radio on Sunday and refuted the talk of pro-Warriors conspiracy theories, saying that the league office deemed Green’s kick to Steven Adams’s groin reckless, but unintentional.
“I acknowledge that that was a close decision on upgrading Draymond’s kick to a Flagrant 2, but not suspending him for (Game Four),” Silver said, via Diamond Leung of Bay Area News Group. “I will say that we do full investigations around those plays the next day. We interview the officials. We interview the players who are involved, and ultimately we made a decision that he did not intentionally try to kick him in the groin, but it was a reckless act, and it was upgraded to a Flagrant 2.”
Silver even hit back at those who believe that the league didn’t suspend Green because they want to ensure that the Warriors make it to the NBA Finals again.
“I hear it, and it’s the most sensitive issue for me, and it goes to the core integrity of the league and frankly to my integrity,” Silver said. “Even from a business standpoint, it would be impossible to predict which Finals would have a greater following. It depends on how many games, how close the games are. I can only thus sort of swear to the world that we do the best we can and that we don’t prefer one market or one team over another.”
It’s really, really silly that Silver even feels the need to assert this, but because even high-profile players believe something fishy went on with regards to the Green non-suspension, he had to. It was a bit surprising that Green wasn’t suspended given league precedent, but there wasn’t any funny business going on in the league office.
