National Basketball Association

Jeff Van Gundy thinks the NBA bungled Draymond Green's suspension

Published Jun. 16, 2016 11:40 a.m. ET

foxsports

Draymond Green was suspended for Game 5 of the NBA Finals after he was assessed his fourth flagrant foul of the postseason for this incident with LeBron James in Game 4.

With the Golden State Warriors leading the Cleveland Cavaliers 3-1 in the series, it wasn't as big of a controversy as it would have been for, say, Game 7, but the suspension still drove a lot of disagreement since it was a retroactive call and not something egregrious enough to warrant a flagrant or ejection during the game.

One of the people who disagrees is Jeff Van Gundy, who is calling the NBA Finals on ABC. Van Gundy thinks the NBA messed up the Green suspension due to the arbitrary flagrant foul point system that's currently in place.

Van Gundy isn't necessarily sticking up for Green, as he says he believes the kick to Steven Adams' groin in the Western Conference Finals deserved a suspenion.

Van Gundy's larger point is the NBA can avoid some of the reckless "conspiracy" talk that fans like to run with by making case-by-case decisions when there is ample visual evidence to do so. That won't mean there will be complete agreement or that fans won't cry conspiracy when the league makes decisions, but at least it is more transparent and there is no arbitray system to duck behind.