Draymond Green Fed Up With the Internet Mocking Anthony Davis’ Head Injury: ‘One Injury Can Change Everything’
Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green pushed back against the onslaught of jokes at Anthony Davis’ expense after this latest injury.
At the end of Wednesday’s Game 5 between the Warriors and Lakers in the Western Conference semifinals, the Lakers center took an elbow to the head and left the game. He was visibly unstable when trying to walk, and there was concern he may have suffered a concussion.
Because of Davis’ extensive injury history, he’s gained a reputation as a fragile player and the internet was quick to make fun of him for it. TNT’s Inside the NBA crew even seemed to join in when they began laughing at the report that Davis felt “woozy.”
Inside the NBA crew while talking about Lakers-Warriors & Anthony Davis:
Ernie Johnson: “What are you laughing about?”
Shaq: “I’m laughing at Chuck.”
Charles Barkley: “Shaq is over there crumbling up paper… We need to go to that next game quickly.”pic.twitter.com/yNIOm5DaO3
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) May 11, 2023
Some even resorted to calling Davis the league’s “softest player” because he was so disoriented he needed a wheelchair to get back to the locker room.
Green wasn’t amused.
“I saw a lot of people laughing and talking,” Green said on Friday’s episode of The Draymond Green Show. “But it’s a hit to the head. And one small hit to the head can change everything in your life, so I don’t really understand the joke. I don’t understand it at all.
“Every time you step out on the basketball court, the football field, on the ice, on the pitch, you’re risking your life because one injury can change everything.”
Stressing the point of how dangerous some injuries can be despite seeming minor, he brought up the back injury that nearly paralyzed Brazilian soccer player Neymar.
“We saw in — not this past World Cup but the World Cup before — Neymar have an injury to his back that almost paralyzed him, that was a couple centimeters away from paralyzing him,” Green said. “So I don’t quite understand the laughing, why it’s so funny that a guy gets hit in the head. The smallest hit to the wrong part of the head can change your life.”
On Thursday evening, the team listed Davis as probable for Thursday’s Game 6. In an ESPN report, a source close to Davis said there was “no scenario” in which Davis missed the game.
