Lowell Cohn: Groin kick shows Warriors' Draymond Green is no leader

Draymond Green is overrated. Not as a player. He’s a top-10 player in the NBA. But his value to the Warriors as a leader and team spokesman is overrated.

On Sunday night, Green almost sold out his team with a violent groin kick to Thunder center Steven Adams - he risked suspension. On Monday, the NBA upgraded his foul to a Flagrant Foul 2 and fined him 25 grand, but did not suspend him for Game 4. The Warriors lucked out.

Green failed as the leader he pretends to be. Even though he escaped suspension this time, he is on the verge of suspension with his technical fouls and flagrant fouls. Green is out of control.

While the Warriors got off easy, in a way they didn’t. The team had to deal with Green and his kick all Monday. News of the NBA’s decision did not come out until almost 5 p.m. Pacific Time. The Warriors, down 2-1 to the Thunder, had to deal with Green’s junk the day before Game 4. There were phone calls and statements and the worry of not knowing if the Warriors would have him, and there was the drudgery of having to plan for a game without Green. What a waste of energy.

Before we get to the infamous kick, let’s evaluate Green as a player. If every team started from scratch and could choose one player first, certain players would contend for the No. 1 spot. Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, even Russell Westbrook. Never Green.

He cannot carry the load, especially on offense. Not like LeBron James. You don’t build a team around Green. He is a great complementary player, totally necessary, but a sidekick. He is the third-best player on the Warriors.

Now to the main issue, his leadership, his demeanor, his status as the alleged heart and soul of the Warriors. Overrated. We saw that Monday when his heart shriveled right before our eyes. FYI, Curry is the heart and soul and coronary artery of the Warriors.

I insist Green’s kick was intentional. The league tries not to take intent into consideration. Just looks at the play and the injury. I am under no such restriction. The kick sure looked premeditated and was vulgar. Green valued his anger and his pride over his team, and almost put his team in danger of losing him. Such a lapse of judgment.

Even if Green did not mean to kick Adams in the crotch - he did mean it - it was a reckless act. It was not a basketball play. Exactly why the league gave him a Flagrant 2.

Why did Green lose his cool? Because his play was a disaster. He made one of nine shots, missed his final eight. Scored six points. Had four rebounds.

This is the Warriors’ vaunted power forward?

The Thunder went small in the second quarter when they murdered the Warriors and ended the game. They put Durant on Green. Durant is a better player than Green. Durant took Green out of the game on both ends of the floor. The Warriors run their offense through Green when they go small. Durant made Green irrelevant. After OKC coach Billy Donovan moved power forward Serge Ibaka to center and Durant to power forward, the Thunder outscored the Warriors 70-36.

I’m saying Green got frustrated when all that happened. Forget frustrated. He got frantic and his game went to hell and he kicked a defenseless guy in a defenseless place.

Afterward, Green told reporters, “I just completely lost my poise and I can’t do that as a leader.”

Give him begrudging credit for admitting he played like trash and blew his top. Even though he admits to being unprofessional, admitting that doesn’t absolve him. It incriminates him because he knows better.

And that thing about being a leader is laughable. In Game 3, he was no leader. He was an impediment.

Green’s reaction to the kick was deplorable.

After the game, he told reporter Marc Spears he didn’t apologize to Adams because of “what type of guy Adams is.”

“If I go up to him and say, ‘My bad,’ he’ll probably shrug me off,” Green told Spears.

Disgusting response. Disgusting rationalization. Green wouldn’t say “I’m sorry” to Adams because of who Adams is? Well, Adams didn’t kick Green in the groin. Adams didn’t do anything wrong. Adams’ character isn’t in question. Green’s is.

Understand Green put the blame on the victim. “His groin asked me to kick it,” or something like that. “He’s a bad guy so I don’t apologize,” or something like that. You kick a guy down there for the second time, you see him sink to his knees, know the nausea he feels, the sometimes-vomit-inducing nausea, you do the right thing no matter who he is. You do it because it’s the right thing to?do.

The word “sportsmanship” is as outdated as telephone land lines. But Green should have shown a shred of sportsmanship.

I have something else to say about Green’s character. People love him around here - not in OKC they don’t - because he’s pleasant off the court and is a great talker and gives the media good quotes. And because he’s a tough guy. People love him for being a tough guy. Takes no crap.

Andrew Bogut also is a tough guy, probably tougher than Green, but Bogut doesn’t advertise himself as tough or proclaim himself a leader. Tough guys sometimes have a dark side. Not all tough guys have a dark side. Bogut doesn’t. Green does - or he did on Sunday night.

He cracked up at a crisis moment. Could not face his own failure. Could not face the pressure. The tough-guy persona sometimes hides weakness - or fear of weakness. And when the weakness gets exposed, the phony tough guy does something crummy or cowardly. Kicks a guy in the groin, bites a guy’s ear in the ring.

Green, to his everlasting shame, cracked up on national TV. He needs to prove he’s not a scared, vulnerable phony tough guy. Can he?

For more on the world of sports in general and the Bay Area in particular, go to the Cohn Zohn at cohn.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at lowell.cohn@pressdemoct.com.