Sports
Kurtenbach: The NBA will try to fix Draymond Green. It will fail – The Mercury News
Today's e-Edition
Get Morning Report and other email newsletters
Get Morning Report and other email newsletters
Today's e-Edition
Trending:
The NBA suspended Draymond Green on Wednesday, but instead of handing him a ban of five, 10, or 25 games, the league opted for an “indefinite” term.
They’re acting on the advice of Jusuf Nurkić, the man Green punched in his latest outburst, who said “That brother needs help.”
Through therapy and counseling and, who knows, maybe a stint in anger rehab, the NBA is looking to fix Green.
It will fail.
Now, the league won’t be the first to fail at such a task. “Fixing” Green has become somewhat of a cottage industry in recent years.
There was a 2022 Amazon Prime show — “The Sessions” — about Green soul-searching in an effort to “mature.” Deepak Chopra couldn’t change Green. (Nor was “The Sessions” picked up for a second season.)
The Warriors have tried every which way over the years to limit Green’s outbursts. Neither the carrot nor the stick has worked. It reached the point last year where it seemed as if they had given up — Green’s punishment for cold-cocking Jordan Poole in a preseason practice was a few days of forced vacation and a straightforward return to the team for championship ring night. Then they traded Poole away this past summer and gave Green a four-year, $100 million contract.
Green’s agency, Klutch Sports, has tried to tame Dray.
Green himself has tried.
Nothing has changed.
The die is cast with No. 23. This is who Green is. This temperament — this edge — has built a Hall of Fame career from nothing. He, in his own words, pulled it out of the muck. Now, he has multi-generational wealth and a legacy that will live in perpetuity in the rafters of Chase Center.
Why would he change?
He knows he’s not an elite athlete compared to his peers — especially as more and more gray fills his beard. If Green loses his edge, he loses everything.
That must be frustrating. We’ve seen that frustration boil over multiple times this season.
But it also leaves Green with a perverse freedom: He might as well go down swinging.
The NBA doesn’t stand a chance against this guy. He’s too smart, too clever, and far too practiced at this song and dance.
Tuesday night, he showed no remorse as Nurkić clutched his face on the floor. After the game, though, he was apologetic yet adamant that he has nothing to apologize for —he said he was merely selling a foul.
As he said after his last suspension, for putting Minnesota center Rudy Gobert in a chokehold: “I don’t live my life with regrets.”
Truer words have never been spoken.
Such truths will not be said in counseling, rehab, or whatever cockamamie conversion therapy the league thinks will help Green. The truth is that Green will say whatever he needs to say to end this suspension. He might even mean it at the time he says it.
But he has said the “right” things before.
“Hurt people hurt people,” Green told the media after punching Poole. “I am a very flawed human being… I personally know those flaws better than anyone. The work that I’ve done to correct those flaws has been tremendous, and yet there’s still a very long way to go. That’s a constant work in progress. I’m a constant work in process.”
Since Green said that, he’s been suspended three times and fined/forfeited $1.25 million (and that doesn’t include the money he’ll lose and be fined for this latest suspension).
Some progress.
But it’s eloquent, faux-vulnerable statements like that that will get him a quick stamp of approval from the league to return.
Last November, the NBA let Kyrie Irving return from suspension after eight games after he issued an “all races matter” apology following his public promotion of anti-semitism. The contrition-free apology rang hollow — it was insulting to anyone with good sense — but it was good enough for the league.
Ja Morant’s saga was even more embarrassing for the league. Suspended indefinitely for waving a gun while broadcasting live on Instagram at a Colorado strip club, Morant spent less than two days at a Florida counseling program and then gave a terse, rehearsed statement to Jalen Rose (who might as well have held his hand through what they called an “interview”).
Next thing you know, Morant was back in the league.
Two months later, there he was, flashing a gun on another Instagram Live stream. That landed him a 25-game ban from the league, but he’s apparently “complied with everything he’s been asked to do” and will return in short order.
If Ky-Anon and Ja Warrant can easily fool the league, I can only laugh at how easy this will be for an objectively sharp Green.
The Warriors forward will do his time, say what needs to be said, cry when he needs to cry, and do a press conference where he shares his “important” lessons and raves about the “absolutely incredible” program the NBA provided. He’ll be a model citizen upon his return.
But how long will that act last?
How long can Green play without the edge that’s defined his career — the one that rides the line between clean and dirty play? How long can Green fend off the frustration of being a player in decline and stay on the right side of that line?
A month? Maybe two?
Green has the gift for gab. I can write 1,500 words and then do four hours of extemporaneous sports talk radio, and I’m in awe of his oratory prowess.
I don’t question for a second that he will aptly navigate the maze the NBA puts in front of him.
But that doesn’t mean he’ll be a changed man.
Green has been fined by the NBA 206 times in his career per Spotrac. Five of those have been five-figure fines. This will be his sixth fine of six figures or more — and his third in 2023.
Even for a gifted speaker like Green, actions speak louder than words.
And we’re well past the point of reformation for the Warriors’ enforcer.
Copyright © 2023 MediaNews Group