Suspensions and fines could be coming for players involved in Tuesday’s scuffle between the Minnesota Timberwolves and Golden State Warriors.
According NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski, the NBA is “looking further” into the incident that saw Jaden McDaniels and Klay Thompson tugging on each other’s jerseys before Draymond Green put Rudy Gobert in a headlock.
Wojnarowski says a decision should come before the Warriors face the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night, which suggests that McDaniels should be able to play Wednesday night when the Timberwolves face the Suns.
ESPN Sources: The NBA is looking further into the Warriors-Timberwolves scuffle, including Draymond Green headlock on Rudy Gobert. Warriors play OKC on Thursday, so review on Green’s part — including video and interviews — expected to be completed for a ruling prior to that game.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) November 15, 2023
The chaos erupted just 1 minute, 43 seconds into the opening quarter, with the game scoreless when Thompson and McDaniels began to tussle. While McDaniels and Thompson were ejected after being assessed technical fouls, Green was thrown out of the game for a more serious Flagrant 2 foul.
If Green is suspended, it won’t be the first time in his 12-year career. Most recently, he was suspended one game for stepping on the chest of Sacramento’s Damontis Sabonis during Game 2 of last season’s playoff series in April.
Green was assessed a Flagrant 2 foul and ejected from that game, and the NBA’s decision to suspend him for Game 3 “was based in part on Green’s history of unsportsmanlike acts.”
Tuesday’s fracas was similar to the October 2019 incident between Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns and Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid. The NBA suspended both players two games for which the NBA said “Embiid and Towns engaged in a physical confrontation that involved wrestling one another to the floor.”
Gobert was not penalized during the melee Tuesday night and after the game he described Green’s actions as “clown behavior” while McDaniels said he was defending himself after Thompson grabbed his jersey.
Gobert took it one step further, saying he thinks Gobert was trying to put him to sleep with a choke hold.
“He’s grabbing me, he’s grabbing me, he’s grabbing me. (But) the choke wasn’t good enough. Yeah, it wasn’t enough for me to really have to (go to sleep). But he tried. He tried really hard, but it wasn’t good enough to where I felt like I was really in danger of falling asleep or something like that. It was a long time, and if he knew how to choke it could have been way worse. He tried to. His intention was to really take me out. And I kept my hands up the whole time just to show the officials that I wasn’t trying to escalate the situation.” Gobert said, according to The Athletic.
The Timberwolves and Suns tip off Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. in Phoenix.
