Draymond Green and Israeli president Reuven Rivlin in 2018 (Photo by Kobi Gideon/GPO)
As Draymond Green continues his pattern of bullying behavior in the NBA, he has also aligned himself with a genocidal bully on the global stage.
Draymond Green has been reinstated by the National Basketball Association (NBA) after serving what was originally called an indefinite suspension that ended up being 12 games. It was the sixth time he had been suspended in his career. This punishment was imposed for smacking an opposing player in the face. It is true that Green has an exceptionally high basketball IQ and that he has been a key component of the Warriors winning four NBA titles in a six year period.
Furthermore, he is a 4-time all-star and one-time defensive player of the year. His skills are not in question. The question is about who he is at his core and the verdict is clear.
Draymond Green is a bully as a basketball player and in his political beliefs. How else does one explain, in addition to all the other non-basketball related antics, punching his one-time teammate, Jordan Poole, who was 35 pounds lighter than he is?
No, Draymond is not the first valuable player who has engaged in counterproductive antics. Dennis Rodman was notorious for the same. But Rodman never punched his own teammate.
Some will push back saying this is just another swipe at the Black athlete. This is a favorite pastime of not just white sports writers but more than a few Black sports writers who use their platform to curry favor with white fan bases. That larger truth does not mitigate the considerable evidence that Green is indeed a bully. Before punching his teammate and the latest slew of activity, there were signs of his comfort with violent acts. Signs beyond basketball make it impossible to reduce his tendencies to competitive sports.
One such sign occurred in 2018 after the Warriors won their third title. Green accepted an invitation to travel to Israel from Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces for what amounted to a war propaganda spectacle including posing with weapons that are used in terrorist acts against the Palestinian people. There was public outrage expressed regarding Green’s trip to Israel. This controversy occurred shortly after Green and his teammates declined the traditional White House invitation to sports champion teams from then-President Donald Trump. No degree of fascistic political tendencies is acceptable. One either rejects them or endorses them, domestically or internationally. Green is trying to have it both ways in his politics.
The current genocidal actions of this same state in occupied Palestine are not new. Israel periodically carries out war crimes against the people of Gaza. In 2008, there was “Operation Cast Lead” during which the IDF slaughtered over 1400 Palestinians. In 2014 there was “Operation Protective Edge” during which over 2200 Palestinians were murdered. In both cases the majority of casualties were civilians. These are but two examples prior to Green’s visit, of a sociopathic tactic that Israel has long used to ethnic cleanse Gaza of Palestinians called “mowing the lawn.” In spite of a corporate media that has willfully suppressed the war crimes of the Israeli state, it simply is not believable that Green was unaware of this. Green comes from Michigan which has one of the largest Palestinian populations of any state in the nation. At least four city councils in Michigan have passed ceasefire resolutions, more than any other state in the country. Growing up in such an atmosphere of awareness, how could he not know about the violent behavior of Israel? The only conclusion is that he endorses violence, which would be consistent with his own personal behavior.
After Israel’s latest offensive against Gaza began in October 2023 Green said, "I just send my heart out to everybody involved — to Palestinians and Israelis." The comment seemed safe enough until he added, "I'm a Black man. I know how it feels to get f—d over, and so I sympathize with them. When my best friend is contacting me three, four times a day, terrified, that's a problem.” The friend he refers to is Jewish, and unlike Gazans had little reason to be terrified. Even in his efforts to be balanced, Green showed where his allegiance lies, with a violent state.
A common trait of a bully is that at his core, he is a coward. He only imposes his will on those without the capacity to put up a viable defense. He dare not confront those who can actually push back. There was once an NBA player named Charles Oakley. In his early years with the Chicago Bulls, his assignment was to “deal” with bullies or anyone getting too rough with his young superstar teammate Michael Jordan. He did his job well. He was 6’9 and weighed 225 pounds which made him taller but slightly lighter than Green. I promise you that Draymond Green would have never stepped to “Oak” the way he did Poole or others whom he has confronted.
Green is not alone to blame for how this situation came to this point. The Warriors, the NBA and the sports world culture in general have enabled him all along for one reason: winning is the great deodorizer.
Winning in sports is like money in capitalism. As long as it is produced, ethics and principles about the how are tossed to the wayside. Consider the recently deceased college basketball coaching icon Bobby Knight. His abusive behavior toward his players and everyone else was well known years before the University of Indiana finally dumped him. But he won three national titles so his behavior was excused. When he stopped winning titles, all of a sudden moral indignation about his behavior came to the surface.
Likewise, in spite of repeated attacks against the Palestinian people, documented human rights violations on a daily basis, and openly facilitating apartheid around Gaza, the nearly $4 billion dollars of United States taxpayer money continues to flow to the settler colonial state of Israel with little resistance from anyone in Congress and certainly never from any president regardless of political party.
Like Israel, Green has never feared any accountability for his actions. In fact, in both cases, the behavior has been reinforced in which case, it only gets worse. When one accommodates toxicity, it only spreads. But this time, it appears that Israel has gone too far.
South Africa, which certainly would know an apartheid situation when it sees one, has brought a case against Israel to the International Court of Justice charging the settler colonial state with genocide. The case is likely to take years to resolve and it is unclear, if any, what remedies will be proposed, much less what might be enforced. What is clear is that the world is no longer backing down to the bully (Israel) or its benefactor (the United States).
As the world watches the genocide in Gaza play out, the excuses that have given the bully state of Israel cover for far too long are no longer being accepted. The time is long past for those making excuses for Draymond Green to stop as well. It is not surprising that the basketball bully feels a connection with a war criminal state. Both are the same. Bullies of a feather, flock together.
Gus Griffin is a DC area based independent sportswriter, a member of the Black Alliance for Peace Africa team and the Ujima People’s Progress Party.
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