LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 21: NBA Player Draymond Green attends the world premiere of "Fear" at Directors Guild Of America on January 21, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Paul Archuleta/Getty Images)
Just one day after his suspension from the Golden State Warriors, Draymond Green has continued to trend on social media – and the reactions are coming in faster than Green’s hand across Jusuf Nurkic‘s face.
As previously reported, the incident occurred during a heated match against the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday (December 12) when Green and Nurkic got tangled up in an on-court altercation.
While trying to get open during an inbound play, Green spun around and struck Nurkic in the face, causing the latter to fall to the ground. The referees assessed the NBA star with a flagrant-2 foul and ejected him from the third quarter of the game, a situation not new to him as he has built a reputation for his fouls.
What Green didn’t know was that this particular incident would lead to serious consequences. On Wednesday (December 13), the NBA announced that they have indefinitely suspended the athlete due to his repeated history of “unsportsmanlike conduct.”
Twitter has been in a frenzy with fans sharing their thoughts on what happened, as well as the NBA’s decision to ban Green from future basketball games until further notice.
Some are sharing their disappointment in Green’s actions while others are defending him, insisting that the slap was just part of the game’s intensity.
“Draymond Green does not need to be suspended for a year and there’s been NBA players that don’t worse and nobody says nothing,” one person tweeted, while another continued,
Another user echoed similar words, saying they didn’t feel that the slap should have resulted in an indefinite suspension because Green was playing with “grown men.”
Meanwhile, others are having the time of their life by reacting with memes and funny takes that have quite literally turned this rather serious incident into an entertaining spectacle.
One user tweeted, “Draymond’s WWE tryout is getting ridiculous now.” accompanied by a gif of a WWE wrestler smacking his opponent.
Another one chimed in, “Draymond really a WWE fighter and slap boxer cosplaying as a basketball forward this year lol smh.” The memes were unending, featuring everything from mock-ups of Green as a world-slapping champion to comparisons of him to infamous slappers in movie history.
Regardless of the serious undertones, one thing was clear: social media had found its new favorite pastime in reacting to Draymond Green’s suspension.
Following the game, Green didn’t shy away from answering questions from reporters during a press conference, where he apologized and took accountability for his actions. However, he claimed that hitting Nurkic in the face was not intentional.
“I am not one to apologize for things I mean to do, but I do apologize to Jusuf because I didn’t intend to hit him,” he said “I sell calls with my arms … so I was selling the call … and I swung and unfortunately I hit him.”
But the NBA apparently didn’t think an apology was going to be enough, especially since this is the four-time All-Star’s third ejection of the 2023-24 season. Back in November, during a dispute between both teams, Green infamously earned a five-game ban for putting Ruby Gobert of the Minnesota Timberwolves in a headlock.
