The NBA Used A Hilarious Loophole To Keep Draymond Green In The Game After He Decided To Kick Tari Eason In The Head

Ezra Shaw. Getty Images.

It was bound to happen sooner or later. Draymond Green can talk all he wants about how he's a "changed" guy and how he's learned his lessons about doing shady shit on a basketball court. He's a master at the art of plausible deniability, where he does something dirty, but there's just enough to make a case against it. Or at the very least for Warriors fans to use as a way to gaslight everyone else into this idea that Draymond Green doesn't do dirty shit.

At some point, things were going to boil over in the Rockets/Warriors series given how much those two teams despise each other and the fact that the Rockets also employ a habitual line stepper. Well, things finally boiled over in Game 4, and you'll never guess who was involved!

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Classic Draymond move here and exactly what I mean about how he tries to walk the line in terms of dirty play and plausible deniability. Intentional? An accident? You be the judge.

What made this entire dust up interesting is the circumstances around it, and something I honestly didn't even know what possible. You see a few minutes earlier, Draymond had already been involved in a dust up involving Dillon Brooks (shocker!) and Steph Curry

Somehow, Draymond was given a tech for his participation in that altercation. I have to be honest, I don't see it. I'm definitely not one to stick up for Draymond, but that was a bullshit tech. He didn't do shit. Maybe they did it as a way to prevent anything else from happening, so in that sense, I get it. With one tech, Draymond would have to be on his best behavior.

Or so we thought.

Back to the play with Tari Eason. Normally, that's about as easy a double tech as you're going to find. I wouldn't mind calling nothing, but in most cases, that's an easy double tech. The problem is Draymond already got a tech because of the refs bullshit earlier in the game. A double tech on that play would eject Draymond from a close game, which is NOT what anyone wants in this series. But it was clear you couldn't let Draymond off with nothing, so what happens?

The NBA finds a loophole and calls a flagrant foul on Draymond.

Now hand up, I had no idea if you already had a tech and then got a flagrant that you wouldn't be ejected. That those are two different things. I'm not sure they should be if we're being honest. If you have a tech and then you do some bullshit, you should pay the price via ejection. If you're going to be stupid, face the consequences. Instead, now guys can just get a flagrant and stay in the game? That feels weird and it wouldn't shock me if that's changed moving forward. 

Normally I'd be annoyed that the NBA is enabling Draymond and his behavior, but I can't lie, I didn't want him tossed over that play. Especially because he did not deserve his first tech. If he did, then yeah this would be bullshit, but something tells me the league office realized they fucked up earlier and found a way to save their ass. As someone who wants to see these teams at full strength I don't hate the decision, but I can certainly understand why Rockets fans may not love it. In a way, they got screwed.

Given the fact that we had more Dillon Brooks vs Jimmy Butler back and forth before the end of the first half, this game/series feels like it's destined to explode.

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Tempers are high, the stakes are high, the games are close, and everyone feels ready to snap. NBA playoff basketball baby, there's nothing like it!