Draymond Green, though, is who I want to talk about in 2023--and what the 33-year-old's ongoing, bad-boy behavior on NBA basketball courts signals about our culture and what it might mean for future generations. I have not written on this before for a simple reason--I just started becoming a fan of the pro sport this season; it's hard not to, when you have an exciting group of players like the Phoenix Suns. So, sue me!

Anyway, here's the meat of the issue. During the Tuesday match-up between the Warriors and my Suns, Green was ejected after a foul against center Jusuf Nurkić.

Watch:

[CNN] During the third quarter while being guarded by the center, Green spun around and struck Jusuf Nurkić in the face with his right arm, dropping him to the ground.

The officials reviewed the incident and deemed it a flagrant 2 foul, which results in an automatic ejection from the game.

Green asserted after the game that the hit was accidental.

“I am not one to apologize for things I mean to do, but I do apologize to Jusuf because I didn’t intend to hit him,” Green said after the game. “I was just selling the call because he was grabbing me and pulling my hip, so I spun away and, unfortunately, I hit him.”

The Suns went on to beat the Warriors, 119-116. By "selling the call," Green meant he was hoping to play-act enough to convince referees that a foul was being committed against him (not the other way around).

Now, take what he said however you like. I saw comments on social media from sports analysts who said they had no problem with Draymond's aggressive actions, and that it made them nostalgic for the NBA's style of play in the 1990s. I think anyone watching the action against Nurkić will agree that this is clearly over the line--it's not "style." His body strikes the other player, period. Whether it was on purpose or not is immaterial. 

Others have pointed out that there's a track record to consider. Sports writer and editor Christ Branch wrote in the Athletic's "The Pulse" sports newsletter,

....it’s hard to defend him at this point. He’s been ejected three times in just 23 games. He has long been a wild card, to put it mildly, but 2023 feels extreme already. If he’s suspended for this, it’ll be his sixth career suspension and second of this season.

Well, he was suspended indefinitely by the NBA on Wednesday.

[ESPN] Green received a flagrant foul 2 for striking Nurkić and was subsequently ejected for the third time this season. According to the NBA's release, the indefinite suspension "takes into account Green's repeated history of unsportsmanlike acts."

The league said the penalty handed down by operations chief Joe Dumars begins immediately. This is already Green's second suspension this season.

"He will be required to meet certain league and team conditions before he returns to play," the NBA said.

When someone continues to display unsportsmanlike conduct but gets no real punishment, this is what happens. They know they can keep doing it. And for anyone to brush this off as, "It's just a game," sports are serious. In a cultural sense, they're in the same league as military service for instilling discipline and leadership skills, and values like teamwork and compassion for others. Another one of those values, in sporting events, is fair play.

As time passes, incidents of bad behavior in society build up, one upon another, like the Great Barrier Reef. And that barrier is between us and God, ultimately. In Leviticus 6: 2-5, God talks to Moses about the natural effect of sinning against Him:

“If a person sins and commits a trespass against the Lord by lying^[a] to his neighbor about what was delivered to him for safekeeping, or about ^[b]a pledge, or about a robbery, or if he has extorted from his neighbor, ³ or if he has found what was lost and lies concerning it, and swears falsely—in any one of these things that a man may do in which he sins: ⁴ then it shall be, because he has sinned and is guilty, that he shall ^[c]restore what he has stolen, or the thing which he has extorted, or what was delivered to him for safekeeping, or the lost thing which he found, ⁵ or all that about which he has sworn falsely. [...]" 

A perhaps less divine source, the song "Bad Boys" on Wham!'s debut album, can teach us as well, about the character and thinking of these men (and women). I think the bridge and chorus seem appropriate here:

When you tried to tell me what to do,

I just shut my mouth and smiled at you

One thing that I know for sure

Bad boys

Stick together, never, sad boys

Good guys

They made rules for fools so, get wise

Editor's note: This piece was edited for content after publication. In error, we asserted that "By 'selling the call,' Green meant he was hoping to play-act enough to convince referees that he had not committed any foul (much less a flagrant one)." Thanks to the kind nudge from a VIP reader, it has been corrected.