Draymond Green was involved in an assault incident that happened in his home state of Michigan in East Lansing. In a bar, Green was involved in an altercation that allegedly has Draymond and his entourage choking and punching the victim a Michigan State defensive back.
Draymond, who just started his first day of practice with his fellow USA basketball teammates, is hoping to move on from the situation and not let it interfere into the goals of the team. With that being said, Green apologized to his team USA teammates about the incident. Per Kurt Helin of NBC Sports:
“The message for him was: This is an opportunity. When we met yesterday, we gave him a chance to address the team. ‘What do you want to tell the team?’ Basically, he said he wanted to apologize for what happened.
“We were talking about the things that are important to us as a team, that are really strong principles, and being able to maintain your composure is one of them. He knows that’s not what happened and what should have happened. He had a chance to share with the players.
“We’re trying to bond people here because we have a lot of new people. It’s not like this is the same 12. When a player is willing to say, ‘I made a mistake, I didn’t do what I should have done. I apologize for that.’ That helps bring people together.”
Now with all that being said, Green has came out to say that he hopes the issue will get resolved quickly, especially with the 2016 Rio Olympics around the corner.
Green wouldn’t address the issue directly, saying his attorneys are on handling it.
“Everybody’s concerned,” Green said. “At the end of the day, as a public figure as a guy who’s representing this country, I said it’s bigger than me. It’s bigger than anybody on this team. That’s just the stuff we have to remember….
“My attorneys are handling everything, and leave it in their hands. I got an opportunity to compete for a gold medal. You don’t let any type of distraction get in the way of that. This is not about me. It’s not about anyone on this team. It’s about going out and defending our country the right way. Everything else is kind of secondary to that.”
So if he’s hoping his lawyers resolve the situation quickly, will Green be getting any sort of punishment in terms of basketball? USA Basketball Head Coach Mike Krzyzewki doesn’t think that’s going to happen.
“No, no, we’ve already hung him by the thumbs last night for two hours,” Krzyzewski said with a laugh. “It shouldn’t have happened.… Hopefully, it will get resolution. He apologized to the team last night and then we [moved] forward.”
With Green and all of Team USA looking to move on from the situation and focus on the goals of a gold medal. With a different roster then previous years and a whole new set of NBA superstars ready to show what they have on the international level, you can bet Draymond Green is ready to play.
