The Sacramento Kings took a 2-0 series lead over the Golden State Warriors on Monday night, however the game was overshadowed by the stomp heard ’around the world.
The controversial moment, during which Warriors big man Draymond Green stomped on Kings center Domantas Sabonis after a tangle-up beneath the basket, has develop into the talking point of the NBA world – and plenty of current and former players have come to Green’s defense after the initial backlash.
Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard was certainly one of the individuals who thought that Sabonis was more at fault than initially thought, as he appeared to drag down on Green’s leg before the stomp.
“Take foul on Sabonis … I didn’t think Dray tried to step down … that’s just how his balance ended up,” Lillard wrote on Twitter, alongside a shrug emoji.
On “Contained in the NBA” after the Kings pulled away for a 114-106 win, Shaquille O’Neal – a former NBA big man himself – also got here to Green’s defense.
“I’m not gonna sit up here and be a hypocrite. I might have done the identical thing,” O’Neal said.
“Don’t be grabbing me, because what am I gonna do? If I stay there and just attempt to run forward, I’ll fall. You gotta get him up off you. And should you up off me and also you in the way in which, you would possibly get stomped on. Was it a unclean play? After all it was a unclean play. But, hey, don’t grab me and this won’t occur.”
Shaq was the one member of the TNT crew to defend Green.
Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith all called his actions unacceptable.
The longtime Warriors star, who has been at the middle of quite a lot of other controversies throughout his profession, attempted to defend himself in a postgame press conference after he was thrown out of the sport with a Flagrant 2 foul.
“My leg got grabbed, second time in two nights,” Green said. “Referees just watch it. I gotta land my foot somewhere, and I’m not essentially the most flexible person so it’s not stretching that far. I can only step to date and pulling my leg away, so it’s what it’s.”
It stays to be seen if Green will face any additional punishment from the league.
The series now heads to San Francisco with the Warriors attempting to get better from a 2-0 deficit.
