Draymond Green Focused on Olympic Gold, Not Assault Charge

EAST LANSING, MI — Resolution of the misdemeanor assault charges against Golden State Warriors star forward and former Michigan State University standout Draymond Green won’t come until after the 2016 Rio Olympics, where Green will compete for a gold medal with the U.S. Olympics men’s basketball team.

Green is practicing with Team USA in Las Vegas, and appeared via FaceTime at Thursday’s pre-trial hearing in East Lansing, where he’s accused of assaulting a former member of Michigan State’s football team on July 10.

Green has said that he wants to focus on winning gold at the Olympics rather than the legal issues.

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“You don’t let any type of distraction get in the way of that,” Green told ESPN during a Team USA practice session in Las Vegas. “This [is] not about me. It’s not about anyone on this team. It’s about going out and defending our country the right way, so everything else is kind of secondary to that.”

Olympic team coach Mike Krzyzewski told the San Francisco Chronicle that Green’s versatility is important to Team USA’s success in Rio.

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“Draymond brings us as versatile a player as you could have,” Krzyzewski said. “Not just what he does physically but in how he leads, his emotion. He brings the intangibles and the tangibles. And with his versatility, you can play him in a number of different spots.”

“We don’t embrace linger,” Krzyzewski told the San Francisco newspaper. “But I would rather have emotional people who sometimes make small mistakes than to have non-emotional people who are unwilling to put themselves in a position where they will go to an extreme where a mistake might be made.

“He’ll be fine.”

Team USA’s first exhibition game is Friday against Argentina. Several other Olympics exhibition games are scheduled before the Aug. 6-21 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Exhibition games will be held against China in Los Angeles and Oakland, CA; against Venezuela in Chicago, IL; and against Nigeria in Houston, TX.

Image: Keith Allison via Flickr / Creative Commons