“WHY??” - Rich Eisen Reacts to Draymond Green Stomping on Domantas Sabonis in Warriors' GM2 Loss

Draymond Green, as you know, I think is going to the Hall of Fame, and I don't believe the Warriors have as many rings as they'd like to tell you about, because they have them, without Draymond Green. They might have none of them, but as Brockman has pointed out many times on this show, and I'm sure we would be happy to do so again, they could have more if it wasn't for Draymond Green's non-basketball activities during a basketball game. And I remember, were we on the air yet? When LeBron and I think we were on the air. Yeah, we were on the air. This has been going on a while. When Draymond hit King James in the crown jewels and got suspended, the Cavs gladly took that as an opportunity to win the final three games of their finals. And I just remember Draymond Green, when he's suspended, you know where he was? Remember where he was? He was across the street at an A's game with Marshawn Lynch. And I'm like, okay, I guess he's not sitting there thinking, I'm not available for my team in such a crucial situation. As a matter of fact, he's owning it. He's wearing it on his sleeve. He's wearing it on his sleeve and owning it in a way that I thought was unhealthy. And now that he's got more gray in his beard, one would think that being unavailable would be worn in a much more statesman-like manner. Not last night. DeMontis Sabonis and him are tangled up, which is one way to say it. Another way to say it, the way that I saw it, the way that Jim Jackson saw it, the way that many others saw it. Sabonis grabs Draymond Green's ankle after the Warriors gain possession. And after Sabonis is not called for throwing Klay Thompson out of the way and onto the ground. And by the way, the momentum of doing that is what put him on the ground. And it sure looks like to me, he's grabbing onto Draymond's ankle and Draymond responds by stomping on him. Flagrant too, he's ejected. Sabonis gets a flagrant foul. By the way, missed his two free throws. But they do get possession. Well, that's because his lung had collapsed. Is that right? Is that right? Because the lung had collapsed to the point where he was playing lights out perimeter defense for the rest of the game. But that's, you know, he's going to still have an MRI today. We'll leave that aside for the moment. Honestly, I mean, he was running around his, by the way, if he does have cracked ribs or something or bruised or whatever, man, the way that his lateral movement was protecting the perimeter in the final minutes of that game, you know, adrenaline running through Kevon Looney's picks, man, that was impressive. But this was a one possession game and Draymond gets ejected and he's barking at the crowd and then seemingly happy with the news, at least before I go, at least tell me you're calling it fair enough where Sabonis also got a flagrant. And then once he seemed satisfied with that news and he delivered that, had that news delivered to him, he's off the court. And your best ability in sports is your availability and he's not there. And I wouldn't, you know, and you see the rest of the young guys on the bench, clapping it up and seemingly, you know, fired up by Draymond's activities. And you know, what, are you going to do it for Draymond? Do it for the stomp? Now, Clay Thompson did say, you know, I don't agree, you know, let me get this exact words down. Clay Thompson did say afterwards that, um, what are you going to do when someone grabs your foot when you're running full speed? I don't know how he was running full speed. It did seem like he was just starting from scratch. I'm not saying what Draymond did was right, but you just can't grab somebody's foot taking off at a full sprint. Steve Kerr said he didn't see it. Steph Curry didn't address it. I will. You can't get thrown out of a playoff game. You just simply can't get thrown out of a playoff game on the road when you're staring an 0-2 hole in the face. And Kevon Looney taking over Draymond's role in this offense and certainly on defense, totally different team. And despite the rest of the Warriors standing there and clapping it up and seemingly fired up, I would have loved to have had a stenographer giving me the interlop monologue inside Steph Curry's head. It seemed like, you know what, like it's difficult to ascribe it, but I would just have to think that the future Hall of Fame athlete in Steph's head was like, really, we're doing this again? Again. And it seems like to me that he looked deflated by it. Now he played his ass off. I'm going to talk about tough to guard. You're getting your steps. Let's put it that way. You get your steps in. Look at your Apple Watch at the end of the day like, I've traveled 1,000 miles today. What? Draymond after the game, he didn't own it. That's what he had to say. Walk us through what happened there. My leg got grabbed. Second time in two nights. Referee's just watching. I got to land my foot somewhere. And I'm not the most flexible person, so it's not stretching that far. So you didn't really see where you were stepping. I can only step so far and pulling my leg away. So it is what it is. What was the explanation they gave? I know they gave him a technical then obviously you. The explanation was I stumped too hard. How hard was that impact? Were you surprised that he was on the ground for that long? No, I wasn't surprised that he stayed down that long. Two times you've been held with Sabonis both times. No, it was Monk last game right on the baseline under the rim. So either you're going to stop it. John Goble was looking at Monk hold my leg the last game and he just let it go. And Zach clearly was watching my leg get held this game and let it go. So I guess ankle grabbing is OK. It's not OK, but you know, and he had just escaped a reputational foul getting called on him just moments before after a play where the officials in full real time thought that he threw his behind out to trip up Sabonis up the floor. And Kerr challenged that and they reversed it. So you'd already had a reputational foul. You knew the refs were just looking at this sort of stuff or for it and then maybe not on Sabonis. But maybe I would just say, you know what? You don't have to run up the court when your ankle is being grabbed. Why don't you just fall right down? Why don't you just call attention to it by flopping all over the place and you lay on the on the floor for three minutes? That might not be his M.O. His M.O. is like, screw you. It's not being called on me. I'll just place my foot down. It just seems to me that. You know, he'd prefer playing the victim this way than in the moment of being found, and part of that might be, it just seems again, and he has said this before, like, hey, I'm going to be this way and I do this to fire my team up. And if they don't follow me, then, you know, we're we're we're not winning anyway. I kind of am paraphrasing what he has actually said. I'm just wondering if that hit of Jordan Poole earlier this year is just something he just wants to keep doubling and tripling and quadrupling down on. I'm just wondering, because why would he just be so happy to be unavailable with seven minutes to go in the cauldron of the beam lighting in Sacramento? Why would why would you clap for being ejected? You got to be out there. You're a Hall of Fame player. Why is this in your mind better for you? I mean, better for your podcast downloads better for us to talk about it. I don't I don't get it. I don't get it. It's it's it's just mind blowing to me. What was he thinking when he's watching his team having trouble getting shots off on the perimeter? What's he thinking? Sitting in the locker room as he's watching it go down the tubes? What's he thinking? I'm I'm I have been wronged by the officiating. Really? Yeah, he's always the victim. But you're always his fault. There's no accountability. He's the guy, like you said, knocked out Jordan Poole and then made a documentary so we would feel bad for him. So what's the numbers, though? The hard cold numbers about being down? Oh, when you're down to in the NBA playoffs, you lose 92 percent. Well, I mean, that's what you need to be thinking about when Sabonis is grabbing your ankle. They had chances to win both games. And I know the way he plays is the way he plays. And that's part of the reason why he's going to the Hall of Fame, because it motivates him. And I understand that's what athletes need to do. But he wasn't there, wasn't there gone. Man, I would love to know what Steph Curry's thinking about that, because how Steph thinks about it, I think has a long, long way to go about what Draymond's future is there, as well as, by the way, the way the rest of this series goes. I mean, the Warriors could easily win the next two. Easily. Then you got a best of three and they're going to have to extend their winning streak of winning one game on the road to 28 consecutive series in order to get out of here. But Draymond wasn't there. That's it. End of story. And that shouldn't happen. Can't happen. Catch the Rich Eisen show every single day on the Roku channel, 12 to 3 Eastern for free.