Uhhhhhh Ya Think: Draymond Green Suggests He Would Have Been Suspended For The Entire Playoffs If He Threw A Heating Pack Onto The Court Like Jamal Murray

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Remember when the Nuggets were still alive Jamal Murray threw that heating pad onto the court while he had a temper tantrum on the bench? Those were fun times. In retrospect, it's still pretty crazy that happened and it was pretty clear the league office was doing its best to protect their precious defending champs who were on the brink of going down 0-3 in that series against MIN. The fact that he wasn't suspended was odd, especially when we've seen players ejected for throwing stuff onto the court during the regular season.

So on one hand, I have to agree with Draymond here, which isn't exactly a common stance to have when he's on podcasts. It was very clear that when it came to that situation and that series, the league turned a blind eye and wanted the players to determine the outcome, not a suspension. I would ask where that line of thinking was during the controversial Suns/Spurs suspensions during the Nash Era, or even Draymond's suspension that he talked about in that clip. In those instances, the league had no problem letting suspensions impact big time playoff series, yet in this instance, they didn't. Not very consistent if you ask me!

The thing is, Draymond has no one to blame but himself for being in that spot when it comes to the league's decision-making whenever he does something fucked up. He's the very definition of a repeat offender. Actions have consequences unfortunately, and when you have the list of plays that Draymond does in his career that have warranted a suspension, you pretty much lose the benefit of the doubt for the rest of your career. Forget the fact that refs already let Draymond yell and scream and get in officials' faces more than any other player without getting a tech, it's not exactly unusual for someone's previous actions to impact their future punishments when they keep doing the same dirty/fucked up acts during a basketball game. So while I agree that things would have been handled differently if it was Draymond, I sort of reject this idea that he's some sort of victim of inconsistent league office rulings.

No, you earned the reputation you have because of your own actions. That's it. Different players will have different cases based on their history of doing things that might warrant a suspension. I'm not sure why that's surprising.

Honestly, the league office got bailed out a little bit by the Wolves and the fact that they came back and still won the series anyway because there's no denying that Murray being available impacted what happened in the ensuing games after that heat pack toss. Part of me feels like that was the Basketball Gods at work, but I guess we'll never truly know.