Draymond Green And Domantas Sabonis’s WWE-Like Feud Now Features Dueling X-Rays

The wildest moment of the 2023 NBA Playoffs came with about seven minutes to go in Game 2 of Warriors-Kings in Sacramento, when Domantas Sabonis grabbed Draymond Green’s ankle and then promptly got stomped in the chest by Green in retaliation.

Sabonis would stay on the ground for much of what became a lengthy review at the monitor by the officials, who decided on a technical foul for Sabonis’ ankle lock, while Green was ejected for a Flagrant 2 for his stomp to the chest. Green spent the review doing Hulk Hogan ear gestures to the crowd and then screamed at fans behind the Kings bench that were giving it right back to him.

After the game, Green said his foot “had to land somewhere,” calling out the Kings for grabbing his leg in each game — Malik Monk was the offender in the opener. On the other side, Sabonis called out Green for a dangerous play and then someone made sure ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski got the word out that he was having X-rays to see if there was any damage to his ribs or lungs.

Four hours later, there was an effort to combat that by getting Green’s injury concerns out to the public by doing the same, as Marc Spears reported there will be X-rays on the Warriors star’s ankle.

The showmanship on display from both is incredible here. We literally saw Draymond jumping around to hype up his team during the review and after the ejection, certainly not looking any worse for wear on that ankle, while Sabonis played the last seven minutes of the game and tried to take a charge in the chest and popped up after. I have no doubt the stomp hurt and Sabonis is probably quite sore, but the X-ray thing certainly seems to be an effort to further sway public (and the league’s) opinion on the altercation. As for Green, this is just incredible trolling.

There’s a real professional wrestling quality to this feud that’s building between the two, as they have spent an inordinate amount of time tangled up, baiting one another into fouls, and flopping on contact at every turn. Everything is embellished to an almost comical degree, and now they’re posturing over who hurt the other worse with a dirty play. That hasn’t been lost of fans, one of whom fired up WWE 2K to create a Draymond-Sabonis match in the ring, complete with chest stomps from Green.

The posturing from both sides only adds fuel to the fire, and I really do appreciate how over the top the display from both sides. I hope it only continues and Draymond comes into Game 3 getting taken to the bench in a wheelchair like Kevin Nash with a fake leg in a cast.