Rudy Gobert calls out Draymond Greens clown behavior as he wins latest spat

Editor’s note: The NBA announced Wednesday night that Draymond Green was suspended five games and Klay Thompson, Rudy Gobert and Jaden McDaniels were fined for their roles in Tuesday’s dust-up.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Chase Center crowd was roaring, Jaden McDaniels and Klay Thompson were scrapping and Rudy Gobert was right in the middle of the chaos when he felt a burly right arm wrap around his throat. He couldn’t see who was on his back, but he didn’t have to. He knew exactly who the arm belonged to — his longtime nemesis, Draymond Green.

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“I could feel that it was him,” Gobert told The Athletic.

As Green applied the choke hold to Gobert to pull him off of Thompson, the Minnesota Timberwolves center tried to stay calm as everyone around him seemed to be losing their minds.

“He’s grabbing me, he’s grabbing me, he’s grabbing me,” Gobert recalled. “(But) the choke wasn’t good enough. Yeah, it wasn’t enough for me to really have to (go to sleep). But he tried. He tried really hard, but it wasn’t good enough to where I felt like I was really in danger of falling asleep or something like that.”

Green held Gobert for about nine seconds on Tuesday as assistant coaches, security staff and players tried to pry everyone apart and get control of a situation that erupted as the game between the Timberwolves and Golden State Warriors wasn’t even two minutes old.

“It was a long time, and if he knew how to choke it could have been way worse,” Gobert said. “He tried to. His intention was to really take me out. And I kept my hands up the whole time just to show the officials that I wasn’t trying to escalate the situation.”

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The confrontation between Gobert and Green was just the latest round of a long-running feud between two of the best defensive players in league history. While the rivals have exchanged verbal jabs in the past, this is the first time the beef turned violent. While the image of Green applying that hold to Gobert was shocking to most observers, the least surprised person was the one who was getting choked.

Thompson, McDaniels and Green were all ejected for their roles in the fracas, which sent a charge into the arena and into a short-handed Warriors team that was playing without superstar Steph Curry, who was out with soreness in his right knee. Gobert said he knew all along this was how it was going to play out.

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“It’s kind of funny because before the game, I was telling myself that Steph is not playing, so I know Draymond is going to try and get ejected,” Gobert said. “Because every time Steph doesn’t play, (Draymond) doesn’t want to play — it’s his guy Steph. He’ll do anything he can to get ejected.”

There are many, many examples of games that Curry has missed and Green did not get thrown out that would disprove Gobert’s theory, but he delivered that comment with a purpose. He wanted to embarrass Green, a twisting of the knife after the Wolves beat the Warriors 104-101 to improve to 8-2 this season.

As even casual NBA fans are well aware, this wasn’t the first time that Gobert and Green found themselves at odds with one another. In early February 2019, after Gobert became emotional during a media session while discussing his absence from the All-Star selections that season, Green mocked him on Twitter.

I guess I should cry too… no Charlotte? 😢😢😢

— Draymond Green (@Money23Green) February 1, 2019

Three years later, when Green discussed his All-Star selection on national television, he referenced the Gobert reaction again.

“You can’t cry, Chuck,” he said to TNT’s Charles Barkley. “Cry in the car.”

All the while, the two players were perennial contenders for the league’s NBA Defensive Player of the Year award. Green won it in the 2016-17 season, while Gobert won it in three of the four following seasons. Gobert’s Utah Jazz teams tried, in vain, to emerge as contenders to Golden State’s throne in the West, adding more edge to the rivalry.

The Warriors entered Tuesday’s game having lost three in a row, including a loss to Cleveland on Saturday in which Green was ejected after a confrontation with Cavs star Donovan Mitchell that led to a retroactive, and controversial, second technical foul. In a loss to Minnesota on Sunday, Anthony Edwards took exception to a hard foul from Green midway through the fourth quarter and the edginess emerged yet again.

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“Get the f— out of here,” Green barked loud enough for nearby microphones to hear. “What are you gonna do about it?”

Edwards responded by scoring 10 points down the stretch, including blowing by Green on a drive and putting him in the spin cycle for a jumper near the foul line to ice the game. Green was helpless to do anything and Thompson wasn’t much better. The proud veteran is off to a rough start to the season, and he went just 5 of 16 in the loss on Sunday.

The Wolves entered the rematch on Tuesday night expecting the Warriors to be even more physical, especially without Curry. Thompson air-balled a great look at a 3 on the opening possession. Moments later, he was boxing out McDaniels on the other end. But he did so by just grabbing McDaniels with his right hand and extending his arm. He appeared to continue to hold it as the two headed back up the court and McDaniels took exception. A tussle ensued.

“There was some chitter-chatter going back and forth. I wasn’t taking it serious,” McDaniels said. “I was laughing. I guess it was a bigger deal to him. I don’t have a problem. I was just trying to defend myself really.”

As the two crossed onto the Warriors’ side of the court and escalated their confrontation, Gobert came in and grabbed Thompson in an attempt to put a stop to it. That’s when Green leaped into the fray, coming to the aid of his longtime teammate.

Emotions remained high in the aftermath of the incident. When Thompson learned that he had been ejected, he pleaded his case with official Aaron Smith before throwing a towel against the scorer’s table. As McDaniels headed off the court, he was greeted by Thompson’s brother and Warriors video coordinator, Mychel. The two exchanged words as McDaniels continued toward the visitors’s locker room.

“There is no way Klay should have been ejected,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “That’s ridiculous … as far as the Draymond part, Rudy had his hands on Klay’s neck. That’s why Draymond went after Rudy.”

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When informed of Kerr’s comments, Gobert chuckled.

“What do you want me to say? He’s backing his guy, but I think he knows,” Gobert said. “Deep inside, he (doesn’t) want to say it but his guy is a clown.”

Gobert said that he had no ill intent when he grabbed Thompson. He said he was trying to de-escalate the situation, a view that the referees appear to have agreed with when they decided not to eject him.

“Gobert was attempting to separate Thompson and McDaniels and was ruled to be a peacemaker,” NBA official Tyler Ford told a pool reporter.

Gobert put his hands up and did not fight back against Green, he said, because he wanted to show the officials that he was not participating in the fight.

“I do a lot of work — meditation work, things like that,” Gobert said. “So I was like, ‘It’s a good opportunity for me to show that I can overcome my emotions and then be the bigger man. And my team needs me in the game. So I had to keep my emotions away and really focus on the game.’”

The Warriors lost two starters and the Wolves only one in the altercation. But Golden State succeeded in turning a basketball game into a bar fight, rattling a deeper, more talented team and whipping the home crowd into a frenzy.

“We wanted to punch first,” Warriors center Kevon Looney said. “The altercation got the crowd into it. It got everybody going that it was going to be an attack-first and play hard for our guys that got ejected and not let that carry over.”

A Wolves team that had taken pride in its focus and attention to detail at the start of the season came unglued right after the fight. The No. 1-ranked defense in the league suddenly turned into five players running around with no direction as rookie Brandin Podziemski, Gary Payton II, Dario Šarić, Chris Paul and Jonathan Kuminga hung 30 points on the board in the first quarter and built a 12-point lead in the second.

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Edwards appeared to be particularly out of sorts, turning the ball over four times in the first three quarters and begging for fouls.

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The Wolves trailed 83-76 heading into the fourth quarter, but Karl-Anthony Towns scored 11 of his 33 points in the fourth. Minnesota’s defense showed up just in time, forcing six turnovers in the final 12 minutes and holding the Warriors to 30 percent shooting in a 28-18 quarter.

CASHHHHH. 😼😼😼 pic.twitter.com/Xxcb3K6F08

— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) November 15, 2023

The Warriors hung tough right to the end, but Towns hit a 3 with 1:07 to play that put Minnesota up 99-98. Mike Conley added another one from the corner with 9.6 seconds to go to seal the Wolves’ seventh straight win.

MINNESOTA MIKE!!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/7YQ2QnApvW

— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) November 15, 2023

“We did a great job of staying composed through all the hoopla and just focusing on the game,” said Towns, who also had 11 rebounds and went 5 of 12 from 3-point range. “It’s a testament to this team’s mindset going into the game.”

“We definitely do not win that game last season,” Naz Reid said.

Gobert is factoring significantly into the turnaround. His arrival to Minnesota last season was disjointed as he struggled to adapt to a new city and new franchise after nine years in Utah, and his new teammates were equally flummoxed as they tried to incorporate him into what they were doing on the court.

The result was a 42-40 season and a first-round exit in the playoffs at the hands of Denver. It is still so early this season, but these Timberwolves look like a much more complete team. Gobert struggled offensively for much of the game, scoring nine points on 2-of-8 shooting. But he had 13 rebounds and three blocked shots, all of them coming in the fourth quarter to rally the Wolves.

While Gobert was speaking to a reporter about his confrontation with Green, Towns interrupted briefly to come to his defense. They have his back, and he has theirs.

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“Rudy did the right thing,” Towns said from his nearby locker.

As Gobert prepared to head to the bus for a flight to Phoenix, he couldn’t help but give Green something to stew over for the next four months until they meet again on March 24 in Minnesota.

“Clown behavior and I’m proud of myself for being the bigger man again and again,” Gobert said. “And yeah, (he) doesn’t even deserve me putting my hands on him. My team needed me tonight. I did whatever I could to keep my cool and then show that I wasn’t making the situation worse, and I do hope that the league is going to do what needs to be done because that’s just clown behavior.”

(Photo of Timberwolves-Warriors: Jed Jacobsohn / Associated Press)

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