One of Draymond Green’s colleagues on Inside the NBA is coming to his defense…sort of.
After Green was ejected from Game 2 of the first-round series with the Kings for stomping on the chest of Domantas Sabonis, Shaquille O’Neal said on the TNT postgame show that he would have done the same thing.
“I’m not gonna sit up here and be a hypocrite, I would have done the same thing, I really would,” Shaq said to chuckles from his co-hosts. “Don’t be grabbing me because what am I gonna do? If I stay there and try to run forward I’ll fall, you’ve got to get him up off you. You might get stomped on.”
That said, Shaq didn’t think the transgression should’ve gone uncalled.
“Was it a dirty play? Of course it was a dirty play. If you don’t grab me this won’t happen.”
“One bad play begets another bad play, don’t grab me.”
Murph and Mac broke down the stomp on Tuesday morning. Listen below:
Barkley’s co-hosts disagreed with the notion that there is nowhere for your foot to go after it gets grabbed.
“Just move away. Just walk,” Barkley quipped with a chuckle.
Sabonis fell to the ground while fighting for a rebound, and rolled over toward a standing Green in the fourth quarter of the game. As Green tried to run back up the court, Sabonis appeared to grab his leg, which then landed on Sabonis’ chest. At that point, Green appeared to put his full weight onto Sabonis’ chest, and launched himself off of it. Sabonis stayed on the ground writhing in pain.