Green: People who can't even touch the rim make the flailing rules
Draymond Green, as you might've heard, is not a robot, and he doesn't want anyone patrolling his behavior. That applies not only to his emotions, but also the instinctive jerking of his limbs.
The Golden State Warriors forward, who had a rule named after him this season thanks to the repeated instances of his flailing legs striking opposing players, has faced a new wave of scrutiny after accidentally kicking James Harden in the head during the Warriors' double-overtime loss to the Houston Rockets on Thursday.
He doesn't feel the need to defend himself from people who don't understand how his body works.
"I just laugh at it because it's funny how you can tell me how I get hit and how my body is supposed to react," Green told reporters on Saturday. "I didn't know the people in the league office were that smart when it came to your body movement. I'm not sure if they took kinesiology...
"You got guys that jump to the ceiling. I'm sure a lot of these people that make these rules can't touch the rim. Yet they tell you how when you're way up in the air, which way your body ... I don't really understand that. That's like me going in there and telling them, 'Hey, you did something on this paperwork in here wrong.'"
Though he didn't receive any supplemental discipline, Green was hit with a flagrant-1 foul for the kick, which was deemed an "unnatural act." He used that language to draw a pretty flimsy equivalency between what he did and what Harden does.
"If you're gonna say it's an unnatural act, no offense to James Harden, but I've never seen nobody, up until really James started doing it, in my life that shoot a layup like this under your arm," Green said, while demonstrating Harden's penchant for going up with swooping, two-handed rip-through layup attempts that often draw foul calls.
"That's not really a natural act, either. It's not a natural basketball play, either. So, if you're gonna make a rule, make a rule. But if you're gonna take 'unnatural acts' out the game, then let's lock in on all these unnatural acts and take them out the game."