Draymond Green was suspended on Thursday by the NBA for exceeding the league’s technical foul limit.
The Golden State Warriors forward will miss Friday’s game against the Atlanta Hawks after his latest technical, his 16th of the season.
Green picked up the technical for an incident against the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday. With less than a minute remaining in the first half of the 134-126 Clippers win, Green bounced the ball off of Russell Westbrook’s head following a Clippers bucket.
Officials immediately whistled Green for a technical.
After the game, Green told reporters that he expected the technical foul to be rescinded.
“I think something will change,” Green said. “If that’s a tech, then every word you say on the court is a tech. We’ll see.”
The league apparently did not take issue with Green’s words, but the fact that he bounced the ball off an opponent’s head. It did not cancel the technical.
NBA players and coaches are levied an automatic one-game suspension without pay after 16 technical fouls in a single season. Then they’re immediately at risk of piling up more suspensions. Every two technical fouls after a 16th trigger another suspension without pay.
Green picked up his 16th technical in Golden State’s 70th game of the season. They have 12 more games to go as the fight for positioning in the Western Conference playoffs. Wednesday’s loss left them at 36-34, good for sixth place in a tightly packed conference race.