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Kendrick Perkins: Draymond Green Deserves a Long Suspension for Latest Dirty Play

Stephen Douglas

Stephen A. Smith and Kendrick Perkins on First Take.
Stephen A. Smith and Kendrick Perkins on First Take. / First Take
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Draymond Green, who has been on his best behavior this season, had a brief behavioral relapse over the weekend when he tripped Zach Edey in a game where he was also given two technical fouls and ejected for an unrelated reason. With the technicals, dirty play and near triple-double in a Warriors win, it was a classic Draymond Green hat trick.

The NBA later upgraded the foul to a flagrant 1, but some people don't think that's enough considering Green's resume and how dirty the play was. On First Take this morning Kendrick Perkins said that he thought Green deserved a lengthy suspension.

"I actually think Draymond should be suspended for an extended period of time. We're talking about a play where he actually, yes, we're talking about a play where he pulled on the opponent's achilles, while the opponent was going in the opposite direction. And we're talking about a guy, Zach Edey, who's 7'2", 7'3" probably 300 pounds. This could have been a season-ending injury right here. And I get it right? So many people is like it's a sticky situation because it is Draymond. Some people on the other side like with me is saying this is a dirty play, he needs to be penalized for this. He needs to be suspended. And there's others that says hold on let's take a deep dive into it we don't want to make it as if we're picking on Draymond. But if you ask me he has to be suspended for an extended period of time. There's no room, no place in our game for those type of actions."

While Stephen A. Smith didn't agree that Green should be suspended, he confirmed that many in NBA circles did agree with Perkins.

Considering Green was only given a flagrant 1 for the play, it seems unlikely the NBA will follow up with a suspension, but who knows? It's likely they'll just let the chatter subside and not suspend Green until he does something else egregious. The only real mystery is how long we'll have to wait.

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Stephen Douglas
STEPHEN DOUGLAS

Stephen Douglas is a Senior Writer on the Breaking & Trending News Team at Sports Illustrated. He has been in journalism and media since 2008, and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Stephen spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and has previously written for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.

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