Draymond Green Reveals Why He Hard-Fouled Khaman Maluach

Draymond Green says there is one thing a big man can never afford to lose: respect.

That is why he threw Phoenix Suns center Khaman Maluach to the floor during Monday night's game.

The play happened early in the third quarter of the Golden State Warriors' 116-113 win over the Suns.

Phoenix led 65-57 at the time and seemed to have control of the game.

Maluach, a rookie who has been starting for the franchise, took position inside the Warriors' paint.

In the process, he appeared to make contact with Green, who fell to the floor.

Green got back up, grabbed Maluach and threw him down to the hardwood.

The referees called a technical foul on Green for the throw.

Then things escalated.

Suns forward Dillon Brooks rushed in to defend his teammate.

Green and Brooks exchanged words and grabbed each other before players and officials separated them.

Both players received double technicals.

Because Green had already received one technical for the foul on Maluach, the second technical meant ejection.

Green left the game early in the third quarter.

The Warriors used the ejection as motivation and came back to win.

But for Green, that play was never just a reaction to what Maluach did.

He explained his thinking on the Thursday edition of The Draymond Green Show.

"He (Maluach) comes in dips his shoulder in and kind of caught me in the bad way, I fell down," Green said.

"I get back up, I'm not going to fall down and let a guy score, the play can't go on like that."

Green said the decision came down to something deeper than that single possession.

"As a big man, if something like that happened to you, you kind of like lose your powers," Green said.

"A guy's just gonna try you over and over if something happened to you like that as a big man."

He then laid out the core rule he believes every big man must follow.

"You must stand on that as a big man, if you don't, your paint get ran through, no rim protection cause there's no respect after that," Green said.

He brought up two Hall of Fame centers to make his case.

Green cited Shaquille O'Neal and Ben Wallace as examples of players who commanded that kind of respect in the paint.

The four-time champion made it clear he would do the same thing again.

"The next time you try something like that, you got to know that that comes with something else," Green said.

"That's all a part of protecting a rim, being an anchor of a defense."

"I want to help y'all understand that and let you know that, yeah, that will happen again."

The NBA reviewed the incident but did not announce any suspension for Green.

He is expected to be available for the Warriors' next game against the Miami Heat on Thursday.

Green accepted the technical fouls he received without complaint.

"Little tech for throwing him. Yeah, no problem. I'll take that," Green said.

But he also turned his attention to Dillon Brooks.

In his postgame press conference, Brooks said Green was "tweaking" all game.

Green disagreed with that characterization.

He claimed Brooks said that to get people on his side.

Brooks also said he was trying to "de-escalate" the situation by grabbing Green.

Green rejected that explanation entirely.