Kevin Durant became the eighth leading scorer in NBA history this Wednesday, surpassing Shaquille O’Neal, in a day also marked by a new altercation involving Draymond Green. On this occasion, the victim of the Warriors player was the Spanish Santi Aldama.
Green faced Aldama this Wednesday during the game between the Golden State Warriors and the Memphis Grizzlies in which the Spaniard shone with 27 points and was just one away from equaling his best score in the NBA. Aldama scored 27 points (9 of 18 on field goals, 6 of 12 on triples), 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and a block. He was thus just one point shy of the 28 points he scored in November against the Boston Celtics and with which he established his NBA scoring record.
Beyond his great performance, Aldama was the protagonist of this match against Golden State due to his incident with Green. With 6.52 until halftime, the Spaniard captured an offensive rebound and scored a basket in front of the Warriors center. Both players collided with the play already going towards the other basket, but Green immediately put his hands on the Spaniard’s chest and grabbed his shirt while he shook his head.
The scuffle did not go any further but both Aldama and Taylor Jenkins, Memphis coach, showed their anger in front of the referees. During a timeout, Green and Desmond Bane also faced each other and after some shoving with more players around Jenkins ended up on the ground. The referees reviewed the video of everything that happened and called a technical on Green and another on Bane. The game continued next and ended with a 137-116 victory for Golden State.
Essential in the Warriors along with Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, Green has a long history of very controversial and controversial actions. Counting only this season, in November he grabbed Rudy Gobert by the neck with a key in a fight in the duel against the Minnesota Timberwolves, an expulsion for which he also received a five-game ban from the NBA.
Even more serious was the slap that Green slapped in the face of Jusuf Nurkic (Phoenix Suns) in December, a serious incident that led to an indefinite suspension from the NBA for which he would end up missing 16 games.
Durant entered the NBA history books by becoming the eighth player who has scored the most points in the competition. A milestone reached in the victory of the Boston Celtics with certain difficulties at the end against the Milwaukee Bucks without Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The 35-year-old player now has 28,610 points throughout his successful career. Only seven players have scored more points than Durant in the NBA: LeBron James, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Dirk Nowitzki and Wilt Chamberlain.
