NBA fans, players and pundits have taken turns this week analyzing Draymond Green's indefinite suspension after he punched Jusuf Nurkić in the face during the Warriors' loss to the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night.
The player who most recently discussed the incident happens to be one of Green's previous targets: Minnesota Timberwolves big man Rudy Gobert.
“I feel for him,” Gobert told ESPN after the Timberwolves' 119-101 win over the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday night. “You see someone who is not feeling well inside and is suffering. You take away the game and all that, and you want someone to do well and be able to do what we do every night, compete and be happy.”
Gobert understands how Nurkić feels, as the 6-foot-2 center had a similar encounter on the court with Green not long ago.
After Klay Thompson and Jaden McDaniels got into a heated scuffle just 100 seconds into Golden State's loss to Minnesota on Nov. 14, Gobert attempted to pull Thompson away before being put in a chokehold by Green and dragged across the field for several seconds became.
Green, Thompson and McDaniels were all ejected from the game and the NBA later suspended Green for five games for his involvement in the altercation.
Green said in a recent interview with ESPN's Ramona Shelburne that he watched a video of the Gobert incident on his phone and was immediately surprised by his actions.
“When I looked at it again, I said, 'Damn, I held him for a lot longer than I realized at that moment,'” Green told Shelburne. “But the reality is that in these moments you don’t know what time it is. You have no sense of time.”
About a month after the Gobert incident, Green found himself in the same situation again, having committed to the team and promised to get better. This time it was in the third quarter of Tuesday's game against the Suns and happened during an inbounds play where Green thought Nurkić was holding his waist, so he turned to ward off a foul but instead hit Nurkić in the face.
The result was an indefinite suspension by the NBA, which declined to quantify the suspension because league officials want Green to take as much time as he needs to get himself in order before returning to the court .
“I’m not sure what that really means, so it’s hard to say,” Gobert said of the indefinite suspension. “I mean, you don’t want anyone to get seriously hurt. You have to fix this. That's all.”
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