A former NBA player has suggested that there is a pattern to the on-court behavior that has gotten Draymond Green in hot water with the league recently.
In an appearance on FS1’s “Undisputed” Wednesday, former guard Nick Young suggested that Green targets European players with his on-court antics. Young, who was Green’s Golden State Warriors teammate in 2017-18, described his former teammate as a “cheap shot guy.”
"He's more of a cheap shot guy, but he tends to do that to a lot of Europeans. He messing with nothing but foreigners… He had a lot of UFC in him."
Nick Young on his former Warriors teammate Draymond Green and his trash talking 🗣
(via @undisputed)pic.twitter.com/gKLbZINK2i
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) December 13, 2023
“He’s more of a cheap shot guy. He tends to do that to a lot of Europeans. He messing with nothing but foreigners,” Young said of Green.
Does Young have a point? Only if you look at recent trends. Tuesday’s latest incident was against Bosnian center Jusuf Nurkic, and he was ejected and suspended for putting French center Rudy Gobert in a chokehold earlier in the season. Prior to that, there was his run-in with Lithuanian forward Domantas Sabonis in last year’s playoffs.
However, there are plenty of instances of Green going after American-born players, too. There was the infamous practice fight with Jordan Poole last year, but he has also had on-court run-ins with Donovan Mitchell this year, as well as Bradley Beal, James Harden, and even LeBron James. History suggests that Green very much does not discriminate based on who he is up against.
One former NBA star had a very different theory for why Green acts the way he does. As weird as that explanation is, it may make more sense than Young’s.
