The 2016 NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers was one for the ages.
It was a wild series that resulted in the Cavaliers taking the victory, the first for that team and a major notch in LeBron James‘ belt.
The Cavs, despite being down 3-1, ended up coming from behind and won the season, the first team in league history to battle back from that sort of deficit.
People are still talking about those Finals – including Draymond Green.
The Warriors All-Star has a big opinion about them.
Draymond on his Game 5 suspension in the 2016 NBA Finals:
“[What] bothers me is I would’ve been the Finals MVP… that totally changes the narrative.”
“Good luck leaving me off the NBA 75 if I was Finals MVP.”
Oh 👀 pic.twitter.com/OfBFqRECtR
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) February 24, 2022
Green was suspended from Game 5 because of the number of technical fouls he had accumulated before that.
Speaking of missing out on that game, Green said “[What] bothers me is I would’ve been the Finals MVP…that totally changes the narrative.”
He added, “Good luck leaving me off the NBA 75 if I was Finals MVP.”
What Could’ve Been
Green was – and is – a huge part of the Warriors’ success.
There is no doubt that if he wouldn’t have been sidelined for Game 5 of the 2016 Finals, the end result may have been very different.
But Green really has no one to blame but himself for missing the game.
While some of the fouls called on Green might be erroneous, he was also being quite blatant with some of them.
In the closing minutes of Game 4, Green swung his arm and made contact with James after a contentious game between them.
Additionally, Green’s comment about the suspension discounts the fact that James and the Cavs were on a roll that seemingly no one could have stopped.
They had a fire in their bellies and a determination to win – so even if Green was playing, he probably wouldn’t have stopped them.
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