Suspended Green watches from suite at A’s stadium next door
OAKLAND, Calif. — Suspended Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green watched Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Monday night in a baseball suite next door to Oracle Arena at the Oakland Coliseum, where the Athletics hosted the Texas Rangers.
General manager Bob Myers kept him company.
The Warriors said Green changed his mind several times Monday morning before deciding on where to view the potential clincher. The A’s extended Green an invitation to throw out the ceremonial first pitch, but he declined.
“He would like to keep a low profile,” A’s spokeswoman Catherine Aker said.
Oakland manager Bob Melvin offered his office as a quiet spot to watch the game.
The defending champion Warriors held a 3-1 series lead against LeBron James and Cleveland but failed to close out a second straight title against the Cavaliers Monday night in front of their raucous home fans.
The wound-up crowd chanted “Free
Dray-mond! Free Draymond!” and large cutouts of Green’s face waved from all corners of the arena. A #FreeDray hash tag was born.
Golden State owner Joe Lacob wore Green’s No. 23 jersey in solidarity.
Green was suspended by the NBA on Sunday for a fourth-quarter scuffle with James in Game 4, during which the league said Green “made unnecessary contact with a retaliatory swipe of his hand to the groin” of James. Green was issued a retroactive Flagrant-1 foul for his fourth flagrant point of the postseason, drawing an automatic suspension.
Green was sitting out for only the second time all season. The Warriors lost 112-110 at Denver five months earlier — the last time without him — on Jan. 13 when he had a night off to rest.
James said Green’s trash talk also went “a little bit outside of basketball.”
After Monday’s game, Green was allowed to enter Oracle Arena to prepare for a trip to Ohio for Game 6. Hallways connect the side-by-side venues.
“We have to make up for his absence collectively,” coach Steve Kerr said before the game. “There is not one person who can do all of that, but we’re going to have to try a lot of different combinations and try to find rotations that work. We haven’t played without Draymond much at all the last couple of years, so it will be different. But our guys are ready for it, and we have a lot of people who can help.”
Smiling and being playful, Green appeared to be his usual upbeat, high-energy self during a shootaround Monday morning at the team’s downtown practice facility. He pulled off a set of pushups between taking shots, let out a loud “Ahhhhh!” for all to hear and animatedly pointed his right arm in the direction of center Andrew Bogut before disappearing as the Warriors wrapped up their day-of-game preparations.
While Kerr advised all of his players to stay ready because there might be some varying lineups and rotations, guard Shaun Livingston said Green hadn’t addressed the team.
There was a lot of production to make up for without Green’s postseason 15.3 points, team-high 9.6 rebounds and six assists — not to mention his defense.
“It’s tough. He’s in a different position now,” Livingston said before the game. “Usually he’s able to be vocal and then go out and then go out and set the example. Now with him not playing, it’s kind of speaking from a different position.”