Honestly it's more about the law of averages at this point. Imparting that much force on a guy's head is one thing, but continuing to do it repeatedly sometimes catches up with people. You see it in hockey. Seems inevitable to me at this point since even after a suspension, he hasn't changed (unsurprisingly).
I don't know. Maybe it's my bias because I can't stand him and the way he plays, but it certainly looks to me like he pulled another Draymond. You know, that thing where he purposely imparts extra force because he knows an opponent is there and he thinks he can get away with it.
Yeah, if you are leaping in the air to try to tip the ball to another player why in the world would you bring your arm down that fast and with that much force? Seems like an unnatural movement for that type of play.
I'm curious what you think players should do with their arms after jumping for a ball. Leave them up for a second? Bring them down slowly and not get back into the play? This whole play seems like a big nothing. Unfortunate for Donte that he got whacked, but shit happens
"OK but why does shit always happen to us?"
I think a player's natural motion is to leap with their arm extended in the air, tip the ball, and then land with their arms in a somewhat relaxed position. Likely bent at the elbows ready to run down the court. DG swings his arm down with enough force to knock down a professional athlete. He makes contact and rather than having his arm rebound off the other player he forces his arm down and through for no logical reason.
I see purposeful downward acceleration there, after the play on the ball -- not what you're describing. This is why he often gets away with it.
When he stares at the guy on the ground after the play, it's a bad look. Like maybe it was an accident and he just took great pleasure in it afterwards, but sweet mother of God the lengths that folks will go to excuse the guy.
Completely agree.
Alternatively the lengths folks will go to accuse the guy of attempted murder...
I don't know who said that. I'm not even sure that his stuff is ever an attempt to injure or incapacitate. But it's clearly attempts at physical intimidation through violence with disregard for the others involved. And I don't think that it's crazy talk to imply that at some point someone will be injured enough that it shortens their career. And everyone who saw it coming and could have done something will own part of that, including the guy who's probably the best commissioner in any major sport in our lifetimes.
Both true and fair.
This is inaccurate. Dudes like Laimbeer, Mahorn, Rodman, etc were pushing shit just as far as Draymond does
I'd go with a private warning to Kerr. "If Green pulls any shit, Steph's ACL belongs to us." Nothing a batshit (or a batshit enabler) fears more than someone who is more batshit than they are.
Because he has attempted it many times before. That's kinda the way it works. If you dont want to be accused of doing "bad thing X," when it might be a close call *this* time*, dont do "bad thing X" a whole bunch of times before this time.
There's a difference between bringing your arms down naturally and swinging them down.. if Draymond comes down naturally then he maybe hits Donte on the shoulder with little impact.. instead he speeds up the swing of his arm and aims for his face. Saying this is nothing is what Draymond wants and why he's gotten away with doing sneaky dirty shit his entire career.. like when he swings his leg up when shooting so that he kicks someone in the balls. It almost looks natural, but he swung his leg up further to make sure he made contact.
Theoretically---do you think Kerr would believe it, though? He has the only guy in the league who might do that.
I would absolutely *not* have my designated goon take out Curry's ACL (or anyone else's). Maybe just crunch him a bit on an excessively excessive pick.
He deliberately slammed his arm down on the guy. It’s obvious, and you’re just making shit up about what he did and how people are discussing it. It’s weird.
Back then, there was an element of teams policing each other and the league/society largely let it go. It's a different era today, except Draymond is held to a different standard and the league kowtows to the Stephen A Smith's of the world whining and crying about Draymond potentially getting suspended because it hurts the viewing product. In the 80's, somebody would have punched Draymond squre in the face and gotten a 1-game suspension. Now someone would get arrested and Draymond would play victim on his podcast.
I think 2 key factors:
There was talk in here today about him ending someone's career. There was talk during his lengthy suspension that he could seriously injure someone and face a lawsuit.
The difference is that everyone was doing it then (or at least it was "accepted" as to those that did it). Now, it is not. Players routinely get T'd up, fined and suspended. Most of them do, anyway.
i wasn't alive for those teams and I have no problem admitting that stuff didn't belong in the league. it still doesn't. daymond is nuts and his suspension was an absolute sham
It's probably for the reasons you state, but I would have thought that some players would have started trying to bait DG into doing something again.
DG wildly throws parts of his body in the general direction of other players with the intent to harm. He often isn't looking at them and has no idea where he will make contact. It's dumb luck he hasn't stomped on someone's knee or done serious injury to someone's eye by now. That's all it would take to make a serious impact on another player's career.
Yup. It would have been a very good use of Grant Williams in the finals a couple years ago. It’s weird that teams don’t try to use his style of play against him. Instead, they basically do nothing and occasionally complain after the game.
Maybe we should sign Mook Morris with the 15th roster spot, that'd really send a message
Ok.. then have Draymond play in the 80s. It's like arguing that the KKK were orginally democrats.. ok. Both arguments require the idea that nothing has changed since then. When the Celtics were 'dirty' there were plenty of other teams that were as hyper physical and often resorted to violence - famous fights between Boston and Detroit or the Lakers etc. Now there's one player still playing that way against players that don't punch back. The argument is farcical and is just one of the reasons that Warriors fans can't be taken seriously.
Just because he does it all the time and is guilty as sin doesn't make it easy. This isn't hockey, goons like him aren't easy to find because it's been long since legislated out of the game. Someone like Grant goes and just hammers someone, odds are he's gonna get a massive suspension, and won't even do it right. Anyone that does it wrong risks losing millions of dollars in current and future earnings, it's not easy to find someone like that.
You were pretending that he merely brought his arm down quickly to get back into the play, dude. It’s nonsense, internet contrarian bullshit.
I think you are 95% right but I think there’s one more component here that isn’t brought up enough….
Come on, the number of guys that have been slugged in the face during jump balls and tipped balls is innumerable. Watch the replay again and you’ll see that he has no other recourse but to slug DiVincenzo in the side of the head.
Just through the Draymond lens here…
It’s not like I even object to deliberately hitting a guy in the head every once in awhile.
Don’t believe I suggested it is easy. My previous post outlined my thoughts. Too much money involved. But I do think it’s interesting that someone doesn’t snap in the heat of the moment during a game. He’s not the only NBA player with a temper.
Nobody wants to fight a psychopath... plus Draymond is at the end of his career and has made most of the money he'll ever earn.. everyone he's typically intimidating has a lot more to lose than him.
