Rudy Gobert: If Draymond Green ‘Knew How to Choke’ It Could’ve Been ‘Way Worse’

Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert spoke about his spat with Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green during the T-Wolves’ 104-101 road win on Tuesday.

Less than two minutes into the game, Warriors wing Klay Thompson and Timberwolves forward Jaden McDaniels got tied up and refused to let go of each other. That led to a melee, which featured Green putting Gobert in a chokehold from behind.

Green, Thompson and McDaniels were all ejected, and Gobert gave his take on the incident, telling The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski and Sam Amick the following regarding Green: “It was a long time, and if he knew how to choke it could have been way worse. His intention was to take me out.”

Gobert went on to play 35 minutes in the win, finishing with nine points on 2-of-8 shooting, plus 13 rebounds, three blocks and two assists.

While Gobert said Green exhibited “clown behavior,” he also made it clear that he never felt like he was in danger, saying: “The choke wasn’t good enough. Yeah, it wasn’t enough for me to really have to [go to sleep]. But he tried. He tried really hard, but it wasn’t good enough to where I felt like I was really in danger of falling asleep or something like that.”

For Green, Tuesday marked the second consecutive game in which he was ejected, as he was tossed from Saturday’s loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers due to the fact that he was called for two technical fouls.

On top of getting ejected from the past two games, Green could potentially face additional discipline.

Per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the NBA is investigating the events of Tuesday’s game, and the league plans to complete its review of the role Green played prior to Golden State’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday.

According to ESPN’s Kendra Andrews, Gobert expressed his belief that Warriors superstar guard Stephen Curry missing Tuesday’s game due to knee soreness played a role in Green’s actions, saying: “Every time Steph doesn’t play, [Green] doesn’t want to play without his guy Steph, so he does anything he can to get ejected.”

Whatever the reason for the scuffle, it left the Warriors without their three core players for essentially the entirety of Tuesday’s game, as Curry didn’t play and both Green and Thompson were ejected.

Curry, Green and Thompson were key parts of all four championships the Dubs won from 2015 through 2022.

After winning the 2022 NBA title, the Warriors dropped off a bit last season, going 44-38 and losing in the second round of the playoffs.

So far this season, they are off to an uneven start, as their 6-6 record has them eighth in the Western Conference.

Meanwhile, after barely sneaking into the playoffs last season as the No. 8 seed, the Timberwolves have the second-best record in the Western Conference this season at 8-2.