As the final minutes of Game Seven of the NBA Finals ticked down before the Cleveland Cavaliers began the celebration of their first title and the end of a 52-year sports championship drought for their city, one could not help but wonder, "How did we get here?" Just a week earlier, the defending NBA champions held a huge 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series before dropping the next three games to lose the series.
In my opinion, it all began with the questionable suspension of Draymond Green, whose actions earlier in the playoffs warranted such a harsh penalty. I’m not entirely convinced that his actions in Game Four of the finals warranted suspension. There were two questionable moves in the previous series where Green made direct contact with another player’s groin with his knee and foot, yet they refused to suspend him - so to suspend him for contact made while he picked himself up from the floor as a player stepped over him seems out of place.
While the contact is very noticeable when the frame is frozen, in the course of play this contact looks incidental and would clearly have been avoided had LeBron James not stepped over Draymond Green. While there is speculation that the swing was necessary given the actions preceding the swing) with the intent to inflict pain as retribution for being stepped over; one could make an argument that it was incidental. As the below photos shows, LeBron is completely stepping over Draymond Green as he is attempting to get up after being knocked over during the course of play. The officials did not blow their whistle during this contact as had been done with the other questionable groin contact Green had committed during the playoffs.
This lack of a whistle is where I find an issue with Green being suspended, and is something that I have not seen many people comment on. The NBA has said that they are upgrading to a flagrant foul, yet there was no fouled called on the play in question. The literal definition of upgrade is to raise something. In my opinion, one cannot upgrade something that does not exist and while there was a whistle blown, eventually it was a double technical between James and Green as their banter continued.
Whether this move was intentional on the NBA’s part to secure a title for the Cavalier’s, one will never know. It was a clear shot at extending the second most-watched finals in league history therefore increasing profits; the one thing that is clear about this decision is that it doomed the Golden State Warriors. Whatever momentum they had going after their Game Four victory evaporated as the team went on to drop three straight games, two of which were games at home where the Warriors had only lost one game during the regular season. In one of those three games, Stephen Curry fouled out, sparking debate that the NBA was working to ensure a Cavaliers title despite several calls being bad decisions on Curry’s part.
While the NBA’s actions were questionable, the collapse of the Warriors belongs solely to them. As much as Draymond Green means to them and their success, they should have come out hungry in Game Five and tore the Cavaliers to pieces. As much as he is their emotional leader and their rock, they should have gone out and gotten this one game for him. His suspension, given how many members of the team felt was unjust, should have fired them up. Instead, they wilted and shrunk and looked very little like the team that won an NBA record 73 games this season.
Perhaps their failure to rise to the occasion stemmed solely from not wanting to win without him, but I highly doubt that. This is the NBA, not the army, and unfortunately men get left behind fairly regularly in this league.
