LOS ANGELES — The Golden State Warriors believe Draymond Green needs help to curb his long history of rough play, and General Manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. is hopeful an indefinite suspension provides enough time for their star forward to make real progress.
Dunleavy said Thursday that the team is satisfied with the NBA’s latest punishment for Green, the four-time NBA champion who was indefinitely banned Wednesday after hitting Phoenix center Jusuf Nurkic in the face. The suspension was the sixth of Green’s career and his fourth in 2023.
“I think this is something that a lot of people may see as a problem, but we’re looking to turn it into a positive,” Dunleavy said during the Warriors’ morning shootaround before their game against the Clippers. “(Green is at) a point in his career and his life where we want to get some things straightened out, and maybe sometimes you need a jolt like that. But I think it’s been very positive, very open, and (we’re) extremely optimistic that we can get to where we need to go.”
Dunleavy repeatedly said the Warriors will “help” Green during his absence, but didn’t specify the nature of that aid. Green will be around the Warriors extensively during his suspension, although he can’t be with the team on game nights.
Dunleavy also unambiguously confirmed the Warriors are committed to the 33-year-old Green, who is in the first season of a four-year, $100 million contract extension. Although Dunleavy pointedly said Golden State’s starting lineup hasn’t played well enough during the team’s 10-13 start, he praised the play of Stephen Curry and Green.
“He’s been here for a long time,” Dunleavy said of Green. “He’s hung a ton of banners and means so much to this organization. I think this is about turning this thing into a positive and getting better.”
OBITUARY: George McGinnis, a Hall of Fame forward who was a two-time ABA champion and three-time All-Star in the NBA and ABA, died Thursday. He was 73.
The Indiana Pacers said he died early Thursday morning following complications from a cardiac arrest suffered last week at his home. McGinnis also struggled to walk in recent years after undergoing multiple back surgeries because of a hereditary condition.
His uniquely deep, deliberate voice, warm personality and passion for the sport helped him create a tight bond with the fans around his basketball-rich home state, Indiana. Here, they watched McGinnis’ development from Indianapolis prep star into an unstoppable force in his one and only college season at Indiana University before eventually taking the Indiana Pacers to those two titles.
McGinnis had 17,009 points, 9,233 rebounds and 3,089 assists and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2017. At Indiana, he became the first sophomore to lead the Big Ten in scoring (29.9 points) and rebounding (14.7), earning third team All-American honors after sitting out his freshman season because NCAA rules prohibited freshman from competing.
BUCKS-PACERS: Giannis Antetokounmpo exchanged heated words with members of the Indiana staff and raced toward the Pacers’ locker room Wednesday night as the teams squared off in a hallway in a dispute over the game ball following the Milwaukee star’s franchise-record 64-point performance.
After the Bucks’ 140-126 victory, Antetokounmpo had an animated discussion with Indiana star Tyrese Haliburton and other Pacers before rushing from the court toward the Indiana locker room in search of the ball.
The Bucks wanted the game ball for Antetokounmpo. Indiana Coach Rick Carlisle said the Pacers took the ball for Oscar Tshiebwe, who scored his first official NBA point. That led to a confrontation between members of the teams in the arena hallway. Afterward, there still was confusion over who had which game ball.
“I have no idea. I’m not going to lie,” Antetokounmpo said. “I have a ball, but I don’t know if it’s the game ball. It doesn’t feel like the game ball to me. It feels like a brand new ball.”
Carlisle said a number of the Bucks were in the hallway near the Indiana locker room and a confrontation occurred, with Indiana’s General Manager getting elbowed in the ribs.
“What happened after the game was unfortunate,” Carlisle said. “There was a misunderstanding about the game ball. … We were not thinking about Giannis’ franchise record, so we grabbed the ball. … We don’t need the official game ball. There’s two game balls there. We could have taken the other one, but it didn’t need to escalate to that. Really unfortunate.”
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