Suspension Looms: Warriors’ Enforcer Faces Suspension Talks After Latest Controversy

The incident involving Warriors enforcer Draymond Green and Zach Edey during Golden State’s win over the Memphis Grizzlies last Friday has strangely gone under the radar. By that, I mean no supplemental discipline was handed down, minus an upgraded flagrant one foul the next day. Green avoided a much harder slap on the wrist, to which ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins adamantly believes the NBA should have come down harder on the multi-repeat offender.

Warriors Enforcer Draws Suspension Talks After Latest Incident

Warriors Enforcer Draymond Green Deserves ‘Extended Suspension’

While guest appearing on First Take Tuesday morning, the former NBA player-turned-analyst indicated that Green should receive an extended suspension for his takedown of Grizzlies big man Edey. Perkins, who is not shy in calling out Green and his antics over the years, argued that Green’s history and non-basketball play on Edey warrants a time-out. Following up on Stephen A. Smith’s opening remarks, where he admitted he believed the flagrant one upgrade was satisfactory, Perkins disagreed. [2:20 mark]

“Well, I do, I do, and I actually think Draymond should be suspended for an extended period of time. We’re talking about a play where he pulled on the opponent’s [Edey] achilles while the opponent was going the opposite direction. We’re talking about a guy in Zach Edey whose 7’2, 7’3, probably 300 pounds—this could have been a season-ending injury right here.”

Perkins continued, “It’s a sticky situation because it is Draymond. Some people like me are saying this is a dirty play. He needs to be penalized for this; he needs to be suspended, and there’s are others who say, ‘Hold on, let’s take a deeper dive into it; we don’t want to make it as if we’re picking on Draymond. But if you ask me, he needs to be suspended for an extended period of time. There’s no room, no place in our game for those type of actions.”

It’s quite a strong response from Perkins, who, again, has gone after Green on numerous occasions in the past. That’s not to say there are motives behind Perkins’ comments. Simply put, he sees Green’s takedown of Edey as dangerous, and Edey was lucky to have avoided injury.