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Stacey King calls out current era of players for enabling Draymond Green's reckless behavior

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The NBA announced Wednesday that it has suspended Draymond Green indefinitely for striking Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nurkić in the face, saying the Warriors forward's "repeated history of unsportsmanlike acts" factored into the decision.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski cited sources in first reporting the news, minutes before the official NBA announcement.

Green's suspension will begin immediately, per the NBA, and he must meet certain league and team conditions before he returns to play.

Everyone has something to say about Green's pattern of unhinged behavior, including Bulls color analyst for NBC Sports Chicago Stacey King.

"I think it's the old adage — you let a guy do it once, you let him do it twice, and all of a sudden, he's gonna do it every single time," King said Tuesday on the Bulls pregame show. "And no one's ever checked him on it, no one's ever put their hands on him to make him realize, 'I'm not the one.' and let as long as that continues to happen . . .

No one is challenging him. In our era, we had guys that challenged people. I mean, every team had enforcers. We had enforcers on our team. And we didn't play that."

"Bulls Pregame Live" analyst Kendall Gill agreed with King's sentiment, asserting Green has never had players like Charles Oakley and Xavier McDaniel to deal with on the court.

Green told reporters after the game that his actions deserved a Flagrant 2 foul by how the rule is written. But he also repeatedly stated that he didn’t mean to make contact with Nurkić's face, apologizing to the Suns center

“He was pulling my hip and I was swinging away to sell the call,” Green said. “Made contact with him. As you know, I’m not one to apologize for things I meant to do. But I do apologize to Jusuf. Because I didn’t intend to hit him. I sell calls with my arms. I don’t fall to sell the call. I’m not a flopper. So I was just selling a call. I spun away. Unfortunately, I hit him.”

Whether Green did it intentionally or not, the NBA has had enough of his antics. The NBA's decision marks the fourth time Green has been suspended in the calendar year.

Each of Green’s three ejections this season has been from a physical act. The timeline started Nov. 11, when he was caught shoving Cleveland Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell. It continued two games later with Green putting Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert in a chokehold, which drew the Warriors star a five-game suspension, and less than one month later, he hit Nurkić in the head.

Green now has played 15 games this season and has been ejected three times. The Warriors have played 23 games, and are 3-8 in contests that Green either has been ejected from or fully missed because of suspension (five), injury (two) or personal reasons (one).

Now the Warriors will be without him for an indefinite amount of time, five months after he signed a four-year, $100 million contract in free agency to stay in the Bay.

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