After the historic NBA Finals last year, that consisted of “The Block” & the biggest shot in Cleveland Cavaliers franchise history … the Cavaliers would hoist up the Larry O’Brien trophy & just moments later, Warriors All-Star Draymond Green made a call that would change the NBA & the narrative of the “Super Team.”
Per ESPN’s Zach Lowe:
Green was already working on that as he left Oracle Arena after that gutting Game 7 loss. Green sat in his car in the parking lot and called Myers (the Warriors GM), telling him he had to sign Durant. “It’s on you,” Green told Myers. Green hung up, stayed in the parking lot, and made another call — to Durant. “That was my very next call,” Green said. Two weeks later, Durant signed a maximum contract that put him in a Golden State uniform for at least one season, with several more seasons likely to come.
“If we win the championship, I’m like 99 percent sure we don’t get him,” Green said. “There are silver linings to everything.”
It’s clear that the famously blown 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals hit Green & the rest of the Warriors so hard that they never wanted to have a chance to lose in the Finals again. The easiest way to guarantee that is signing the second best player in the NBA in free agency. It’s definitely paid off, as Golden State leads the defending champions 3-0 in the NBA Finals & are 15-0 in the NBA playoffs.
Although, Draymond Green stated he didn’t start his recruitment of Kevin Durant until July 1st (when teams can officially start negotiating with free agents) in a video with DraftKings, clearly something doesn’t add up …
“Tampering” is illegal in the NBA, by definition via Ron Terrell, it is: “When a player or team directly or indirectly entices, induces or persuades anybody (player, general manager, etc.) who is under contract with another team in order to negotiate their services. The NBA may impose suspensions and/or fines up to $50,000 if tampering is discovered.”
The only question at this point is if the NBA will dig into this story & handout possible suspensions and/or fines for, not only Draymond Green or Kevin Durant, but anyone else involved in the negotiations before July 1st. Could we see a repeat of last year’s finals with multiple suspensions handed out this time around?
