Apparently, the Golden State Warriors’ championship ring night had a major swing on the Draymond Green decision made recently.
As reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the said event had a “significant” impact on how the Warriors have determined their punishment against Green.
“I’m told that the Warriors put a significant amount of weight on the fact that opening night was ring night,” Wojnarowski said. “That the players are going to get their rings—Green, Klay Thompson, Steph Curry, their fourth championship in Golden State. The banner’s gonna be raised. They did not treat this like it was one of 82. They didn’t want to suspend Draymond Green and keep him from that. Now, if this incident had happened in the regular season—or if this had just been a normal opening night, and they weren’t there as defending champions—there probably would have been a suspension.”
Golden State landed a decision to hand an undisclosed fine against Green, who escalated a heated altercation and hurled a punch against Jordan Poole last week.
This punishment drew major flak amongst NBA circles, as a game suspension was murmured as a justifiable outcome. But head coach Steve Kerr made it clear that the judgement serves as the best thing they can do moving forward.
From a brief hiatus, Green is also slated to return on Thursday, play in the Dubs’ preseason finale on Friday against the Denver Nuggets and be available on the 2022-23 opening night against the Los Angeles Lakers on Oct. 18.
As the veteran big man already expressed his apology to Poole, it appears that fences are already mending on their side. For being the defending champs, the Warriors can only hope to be complete and all-in to get that fifth title in nine years.
