Jusuf Nurkic said it best, and it's about time the NBA put its foot down after Draymond Green's latest debacle.

-Gerald Bourguet

Jusuf Nurkic is right about Draymond Green: That brother needs help

It must be difficult for a team that consistently reached the NBA mountaintop over the last decade to suddenly find themselves tumbling down it. The Golden State Warriors won their last championship only two years ago, but as they fell to the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday, 119-116, it felt glaringly obvious how dire their situation has become.

The Dubs are 10-13. Klay Thompson is shell of his former self. Andrew Wiggins has been awful. Stephen Curry has very little help between aging vets and younger role players. But worst of all, Draymond Green has barely been available long enough to make an impact. And nothing screams "our time is over" quite like the shot to the face he gave Jusuf Nurkic during Wednesday's game.

About four minutes into the third quarter, the Suns trailed Golden State by 5 points. Green and Nurkic had been jostling for position on the last few plays, with two of the game's most physical players refusing to back down. But as Green tried to establish position on a baseline extended post-up, he suddenly turned and reeled one off, connecting with Nurk on an open-handed smack to the face.

Nurkic hit the deck and Green was assessed a Flagrant 2 foul. He was immediately ejected as a result, and the overwhelming response echoed one Jesse Pinkman: He can't keep getting away with it.

Except, the thing is, he's not getting away with it anymore. Or at least, that's what Suns players and their head coach are expecting.

“It just looked like a reckless, dangerous play," Frank Vogel said. "I'm sensitive to our guys getting hit on plays like that, so I didn't like it, the refs did what they had to do, and the league will do what they have to do.”

This isn't the first time this season that Green's actions have forced the NBA's hand. After putting Rudy Gobert in a headlock less than a minute into the Warriors' mid-November game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Green was ejected from that contest and then suspended an additional five games by the league.

Everyone knows Draymond Green is a fiery competitor and avid trash-talker. As one of the greatest defenders in NBA history for one of the greatest teams that basketball has ever seen, he’s earned that right. Part of what makes him so entertaining is the love-him-or-hate-him approach he brings every night.

But that only earns so much leeway, and he crossed the line once again Tuesday night.

“He wears his emotions, as every top competitor does, and it got out of hand,” Devin Booker said.

The problem is, this is not some new phenomenon, or even a pair of one-off flukes in the midst of a difficult season. Because even at the peak of the Warriors’ powers, this is who Draymond Green has shown he’s capable of being.

In Game 2 of last year’s first-round playoff series, Green was suspended one game for stomping on Domantas Sabonis’ stomach while the Sacramento Kings center was on the ground. Coming off a championship run in 2022, Green reeled off and punched his own teammate in the face during training camp. He was famously suspended for Game 5 of the 2016 NBA Finals after picking up his fourth flagrant foul of the playoffs, which came after smacking LeBron James in the groin.

And all that’s without even mentioning the Steven Adams groin kick or his entire history of questionable plays, dirty fouls and scuffles with opposing players.

“I’m gonna try not to say too much to get me in trouble, but it’s ridiculous at this point,” Chimezie Metu said. “It’s ridiculous.”

Green’s demeanor is inherently polarizing, so plenty of people won’t miss an opportunity to pile on a guy like that when he’s down. But Green’s frequent rogueries have brought most of the scrutiny upon himself. Even his most diehard supporters find it hard to stand up for his actions these days.

This is what the reputation of a four-time NBA champion has become.

When Nurkic was asked about the play, he initially joked that he was “behind the play,” so he didn’t know what happened. But after that attempt at levity, he went for the throat, but unlike Green, Nurk did so figuratively rather than literally.

“What’s going on with him, I don’t know,” Nurkic said. “Personally, I feel like that brother needs help. I’m glad he didn’t try to choke me, but at the same time, ain’t nothing to do with basketball, man. Like, I’m just out there trying to play basketball, and he’s out there swinging. Think we saw that often, but hope [that] whatever he got in his life, it gets better.”

In Green's defense, he indirectly apologized to Nurkic during his postgame press conference, saying that he was just trying to sell a foul call and didn't intend to hit him.

But it's less than ideal that selling a foul call involves dangerously swinging your arms, and the same could be said about players on an opposing team agreeing that they need be on their toes whenever a certain player takes the court.

“I feel like he kind of picks and chooses who he wants to go at," Metu said. "Obviously it's a situation where we're in the middle of a game, nobody can really confront him as you would if we were outside of the court. So it's ridiculous at this point, the stuff that he does. He's not really getting away with it anymore, but to full-on swing on somebody during the game, that's crazy.”

Normally that type of out-of-pocket play would require instant retaliation, but Nurkic and the Suns were able to keep their cool.

“I learned in this league, when you respond to some shit like that, you're getting fined," Nurkic said. "So you're getting the penalty, which is not fair. But at the same time, I'm too valuable for this team to be getting foul trouble or getting techs or getting kicked out. So I gotta stay mentally okay, because it's better for the team to stay on the floor.”

It's a lesson that Draymond Green somehow still hasn't learned 12 years into his Hall-of-Fame career.

It's a lesson the Warriors have shied away from ever teaching him, routinely failing to hold him accountable for some of his questionable antics beyond the obvious detriment his absence brings to his team.

And it's a lesson the NBA office will once again have to reiterate in order to ensure players aren't kicked in the groin, stomped on the chest, thrown into headlocks or outright swung on when they face this four-time champion. A five-game suspension for the Gobert incident was a step in the right direction, but given his history and repeated failures to actually learn from this unacceptable pattern of behavior, a heftier punishment -- 10 games at minimum, and possible more -- should be in order.

In the grand scheme of things, it may not matter as much to the Warriors now that they're in the twilight years of their dynasty. But if the widespread reaction to Wednesday's game was an indication, the league, its players and its fans are fed up, and more drastic measures need to be taken if the message is ever going to sink in.

That brother needs help, and sometimes discipline with more severe consequences is the only way to get the point across.