Over the course of his career, Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green has been ejected from 18 NBA games. Before the NBA season reached the end of its second month, Green had already been tossed three times and suspended twice. The second suspension was the result of a spinning punch into the face of Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nurkić. NBA operations chief Joe Dumars announced Green would be suspended indefinitely, noting his regular involvement in these types of altercations.
That indefinite suspension has come to a close. The NBA reinstated Green on January 6, ending his suspension after 12 games. Because he missed fewer than 20 games, he forfeited $153,941 for every game of the suspension.
With the suspension lasting 12 games, Green lost a collective $1,841,892. As Spotrac has calculated, Green has now had to pay more than $4 million in fines over the course of his NBA career.
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Green has been on a forgiveness tour as he works to get back into the Warriors’ rotation. Fittingly, his “interview” is coming out as an episode of his podcast, “The Draymond Green Show.”
He revealed he met with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and discussed retiring. Green said, “This is too much. It’s all becoming too much for me — and I’m going to retire.”
According to Green, the commissioner wasn’t having any of it. Green said Silver replied, “You’re making a very rash decision, and I won’t let you do that.”
Green also shared that he met with Warriors head coach Steve Kerr and the two of them cried together. The forward underwent counseling during his suspension to help him better control his anger.
Will any of these actions lead to a different Draymond Green on the court? That still remains to be seen, though Green has a long history of incidents on his NBA resume. He’s saying all of the right things now. If he can prove it with clean play on the court, he’ll be able to silence a lot of his critics.
Otherwise, Green could very well receive another ejection or suspension — and forfeit even more money.