Draymond Green Has a History of Wildly Kicking His Legs Out

I actually have 140 clips of him doing this..sometimes he kicks when no one is there..random forward..backward kicks pic.twitter.com/gNRuQQWaXS
— InTheLab (@TEN000HOURS) May 23, 2016

So, here we have some video evidence that would appear to back up Draymond Green's claim that his kick to Steven Adams's nuts was not intentional. Green said he couldn't understand how anyone could possibly think he was trying to hit Adams in the nuts, which seemed like an intentionally obtuse thing to say, but maybe he just expects us to watch him closer than we apparently have been. This is a 30-second clip showing multiple instances of Green driving and wildly kicking out his legs to draw fouls. There's even one against the Oklahoma City Thunder involving, you guessed it, Steven Adams.

This is almost exactly what happened……lol if @Money23Green doesn't get suspended …he owes me a check pic.twitter.com/5L3JD6MKdE
— InTheLab (@TEN000HOURS) May 23, 2016

He's right, too. The only real difference between this and the Adams play is that Adams's balls were perfectly centered in the blast radius. It seems pretty clear that this is learned behavior that most, if not all NBA players have developed in order to draw fouls whenever they feel contact, or in some cases initiate contact. If that's not the case, it means Draymond Green is a complete spaz who nevertheless managed to get good at basketball.

The interesting thing here is what, if any, effect this has on the NBA's thinking in terms of a possible suspension and/or fine. If the NBA sees this or other evidence of a pattern with Green, an argument could be made on either side of the should-he-get-suspended debate. It could be used to show it was incidental and bad luck and thus a suspension might not be warranted. Or, a suspension could be a way to discourage Draymond (and others) from trying to sell contact for a foul call as a player safety issue.

It's also worth noting that even if this video shows that this is just how Draymond plays, it doesn't mean he didn't try to kick Adams in the nuts last night.