Draymond Green was down for a minute against the Cavaliers after Jarrett Allen — accidentally but pretty hard — kicked Green in the groin (to phrase it for polite company).
There was no foul call, no review, no consequences of any kind for Allen. Green, who has faced plenty of consequences when he kicked an opponent in the groin, noticed and said so on his Instagram story.
Draymond reacts to getting kicked below the belt 😅
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) November 6, 2023
[via @Money23Green's IG] pic.twitter.com/tVajBDCTnI
“The Draymond Green Rule is only a rule when Draymond Green is delivering ... cool.”
Green famously was suspended from Game 5 of the 2016 NBA Finals for kicking LeBron James in the groin (it was ruled a technical and the accumulation of those led to Green’s suspension), and the Cavaliers won Game 5 and came back to win the series. The series before that, Green was ejected from a game for kicking the Thunder’s Steven Adams in the same area.
This spurred the league to develop the “unnatural act” rule that states offensive players may not extend any part of their body unnaturally into their opponent. That can apply to a player kicking his legs forward on a jump shot to draw contact, or a host of other things, including something exactly like Allen did in the first quarter to Green. It wasn’t intentional but it was a foul.
Green stayed in the game and scored 18 points in the Warriors’ loss to the Cavaliers.
Green likes to point out that he is treated differently in these situations than others, and you can bet this topic will come up again this season.
