Here comes the heart stepper

Draymond Green is suspended. Domantas Sabonis is listed as questionable. PLUS: Darius Garland and Devin Booker go off.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

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Sir Galahad at the Ruined Chapel; Dante Gabriel Rossetti; 1857-59

The NBA announced late on Tuesday that Draymond Green will be suspended for Game 3 of Kings vs. Warriors on Thursday after stomping on Domantas Sabonis’ chest in the fourth quarter of Game 2. Meanwhile, the Kings announced that Sabonis is questionable with a sternum contusion.

There is little left to say about the incident in which Green earned his ejection and suspension. But that doesn’t mean I can’t try. Two items for your consideration:

History

The NBA said explicitly that the suspension was based in part on Green’s “history of unsportsmanlike acts.” That’s important, and anyone who focuses solely on the incident itself as a binary question of whether an extracurricular stomp earns a suspension isn’t being honest about the situation. It wasn’t a random player doing this. It was the most frequently penalized player in the league. It was a dude with a 10-minute mixtape of dirty play.

Look, Green wants a league where you can play like that. That league does not exist, at least here. Green has been told that repeatedly via sanctions: flagrant fouls, ejections, suspensions. He hasn’t learned that he cannot do what he too often tries to do. So the league is left no other choice than to keep sanctioning him. Of course the context of Green’s history factors in here. How could it not? You can’t keep touching the hot stove and expect it will eventually be cold. Learn!