Draymond Green Looks Ready For The NBA Season After Unleashing A Rudy Gobert Level Headlock On A Warriors Fan Wearing A Jordan Poole Jersey

David Berding. Getty Images.

With the NBA season upon us, that means we're almost back to playing our favorite game of waiting until we have yet another instance of Draymond Green doing something shady on a basketball court. As far as I'm concerned, there are 3 certainties in life

1. Death

2. Taxes 

3. Draymond Green doing something shady on a basketball court

As we've learned, that could really mean anything. A kick to the head, a kick to the dick and balls, straight up choking out an opposing player via a headlock from behind, when it comes to Draymond's antics during an NBA season, I feel like everything and anything is always on the table. 

Of course, you know how this game works. He does something fucked up, he then tries to deny any of it was intentional, the league suspends him, and then he rants on his podcast about how everyone has it out for him when it comes to this stuff. Not a whole lot of accountability if you ask me, but it's been such a constant in his career up until this point, it is what it is. Remember all that talk about how he went to therapy and was a changed man? Maybe that's true in other parts of his life, but it's most definitely not true when it comes to doing fucked up things during games. That's just part of the Draymond Green Experience, for better or for worse. 

It's clear Draymond can't help himself when he steps between the lines and is thrown into competitive NBA basketball, but we're also at the point where he may not even be able to control himself against regular fans either

Look I get it, this is all lighthearted and done in jest blah blah blah. I will say, unleashing a Rudy Gobert level headlock on a fan wearing a Jordan Poole jersey is something that feels like what you would put together while filling out a page in a Mad Libs book. You almost couldn't script it any better than that. 

And while perhaps enough time has passed that he feels comfortable joking about both of those actions, I see it as even more evidence that Draymond doesn't think he did anything wrong in either instance. Despite his own coach blatantly admitting that the Draymond/Poole punch ruined their season (fact)

that seems like a pretty weird thing to be joking about. That punch had real consequences, and I would say the Warriors are still searching for a way to get back to the level they were in 2021-22 when they won the title (sigh) before all that happened the following year. They've yet to win 50 games since that season, and have either missed the playoffs or lost in the 2nd Round in the 3 years since. I dunno, call me crazy, but I wouldn't exactly wear that whole thing as a badge of honor.

The headlock move is another Draymond Classic, and something that you know he has zero regrets over. It's no secret he hates Rudy Gobert with a passion, which is how we got here

“I don't live my life with regrets. I'll come to a teammate's defense any time that I'm in a position to come to a teammate's defense. … What matters to me is how the people that I care about feel, first and foremost. How are the people that I care about affected? How are the people I care about, what do they have to deal with? That's it for me.”

so seeing as how he went right back to the chokehold well, I'd have to agree that Draymond definitely does not regret using that move on Gobert. 

I'm willing to acknowledge that this all may make me sound like a boomer or a hater who can't just enjoy a light-hearted moment during a fan event in China, but I think it's because we all know we're about to see these exact same moves in real NBA games once those start up in the next few weeks. One would think that after everything that's happened, Draymond would try and avoid these types of situations and not glorify them, but then he wouldn't be Draymond. Remember, this is a player who believes he's never done anything wrong or shady on a basketball court in his entire career. Does that look like a guy that's learned his lesson, or does it look like a player who is going to be bringing more of the same to the 2025-26 season?

Looking ahead to when we might get our first Draymond incident, there are a few dates I have circled based on previous history

10/27 vs MEM

11/5 vs SAC

11/26 vs HOU

1/9 vs SAC

1/24-26 vs MIN (2 games back to back in MIN)

There's always a chance we get a new target/beef, and while we may not know who that might be at this moment in time, the one thing we all can agree on is that something is going to happen eventually, and then we'll all do the same song and dance all over again for the millionth time.