The NBA had its first big altercation of the 2023-24 season this past week when the Golden State Warriors and Minnesota Timberwolves got in a scuffle with Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, Rudy Gobert and Jaden McDaniels among those involved.
It started with Thompson and McDaniels getting tangled up just two minutes into the game. They continued to pull on each other’s jerseys with neither willing to let go. As a result, Gobert stepped into the middle of them to try to break it up.
The only problem was that Gobert appeared to grab Thompson by the neck, which prompted Green to coming running in and put Gobert in a chokehold for an extended period. Green, Thompson and McDaniels were all ejected from the game, which was still tied 0-0 at the time of the incident.
Because of Green’s past history, he was handed a five-game suspension by the league while everyone else was just fined for their involvement.
While Green has been the subject of a lot of criticism for his actions, one person who agrees with what he did is Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal, via Chuck Schliken of the L.A. Times:
“I’m from the old school, so you always stick up for your guys. Like, me and you are doing the interview right now — somebody come put their hands on you, I’m gonna beat them up ‘cause you’re my guy. But you get these people who say it was wrong — like, I try not to be a hypocrite. I would’ve did the same thing. I’m not gonna sit here and say he was wrong, he shouldn’t have did it — he probably shouldn’t have did it, but WWSD, what would Shaq do? Shaq would’ve did the same thing.”
Shaq was known to get in some altercations throughout his career and always stuck up for his teammates. He also is a colleague of Green’s on the NBA’s coverage on TNT weekly, so it is not surprising to hear him take this stance.
Even if Green was sticking up for his teammate, he took it a bit too far with the prolonged chokehold, which is why the league came down so hard on him with the suspension.
If he has shown anything throughout his career though it’s that he will not temper his actions based on punishments from the league, so there’s a good chance this isn’t the last altercation Green is involved in, similar to the career of O’Neal.
Shaq disappointed to be left off Lil Wayne’s all-time Lakers list
Someone else that Shaq may want to get in a skirmish with is rapper Lil Wayne as the long-time Lakers fan recently left O’Neal off his all-time franchise list, which disappointed the big man.
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