NBA TWITTERVERSE — The wait for the announcement of the eventual non-suspension of Golden State Warriors power forward Draymond Green, for the kick of Steven Adams in the second quarter of Game 3 against the Oklahoma City Thunder, turned out to be a quite a ride, if you were following us on Twitter.
NBA writers started to bemoan the delay, as the suspension a day earlier of Cleveland Cavaliers guard Dahntay Jones for striking Toronto Raptors center Bismack Biyombo in the groin was reported as occurring at 3:51PM, EDT.
At 4:44PM, Tim Griffin of the San Antonio Express-News tweeted that a one-game suspension had been levied. Griffin is a verified college sports reporter for a reputable newspaper. The newspaper is well-known for its coverage of the San Antonio Spurs.
“More news coming soon,” Griffin said in his tweet, which was eventually deleted.
However, there was still no official word from the NBA, or Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo’s The Vertical or Marc Stein of ESPN, two journalists who have extensive sources in the league.
Minutes later, one of our followers reported that the Vegas line had moved from the Warriors favored by one point to OKC favored by one-and-a-half points. This was spotted at around 4:30PM EDT. Others reported similar findings.
Around that time, someone else noticed another betting application listing Green as “OUT”, although a reply from another observer said that the Warriors were still favored.
Ray Ratto of CSN Bay Area gave the flip side: “…rich guys like to seek out those massive line moves by making (the Vegas lines) move,” he said in reply to ESPN’s Rachel Nichols, who wondered aloud if the oddsmakers knew something that the general public didn’t.
Meanwhile, with more silence coming from the usual sources for NBA information, there was speculation that Griffin threw out his “breaking” news because it was a 50/50 play; by flipping a coin, Griffin could get credit for being the first to report the news if the guess was right.
As the wait lingered on, we found this tweet which accurately described the mood of DubNation:
#Warriors fans waiting on #DraymondGreen news pic.twitter.com/IOPudKB99t
— Doug Gottlieb (@GottliebShow) May 23, 2016
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At 5:12PM, EDT, Wojnarowski finally dropped his “bomb” and tweeted that the NBA would not suspend Green. They would upgrade his flagrant foul to a “2”, which meant Draymond would be one Flagrant Foul One call away from being automatically suspended for one game. This is because Green already has one point for an earlier Flagrant One in the playoffs. A Flagrant Two is worth two points, and on the fourth point, a player is suspended one game per the NBA’s flagrant point system.
Should Green commit a Flagrant Two foul, he would be automatically suspended two games.
As far as his technical foul count, which is currently at four, that’s a separate count. On his seventh technical, Green would be suspended one game, so there’s more of a cushion there for unsportsmanlike conduct which typically involves arguing with officials, but no room for error as far as physical play is concerned.
At 5:15PM, Griffin tweeted that his account had been hacked, then said:
Guys: If you look at my time line today, there was nothing for 6 hours. Why would I jump into something I don't regularly cover?
— Tim Griffin (@TimGriffinBig12) May 23, 2016
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Griffin later retweeted a couple words of support from his colleagues.
Kiki Vandeweghe, VP of Basketball Operations with the NBA, said, “During a game players — at times — flail their legs in an attempt to draw a foul but Green…warranted an additional penalty.”
And so Draymond’s Flagrant One was upgraded to a “Two”. Green was also fined $25,000.
Shortly thereafter, Marc Spears of ESPN’s The Undefeated, which has been running daily diary posts from Green, reported that Draymond “would prefer not to comment.”
Warriors fans breathed a sigh of relief:
@Thee_AR15 @Howsito @LetsGoWarriors pic.twitter.com/mHNNqq9xn0
— jason smith (@jasonrsmith77) May 23, 2016
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…and celebrated the news:
@LetsGoWarriors Dray getting suspended? Nope. pic.twitter.com/B3u25qEOUn
— Adam Howes (@Howsito) May 23, 2016
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(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @jeffery_barker)
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