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NBA fans, players and pundits have taken turns this week dissecting Draymond Green's indefinite suspension after he struck Jusuf Nurki? in the face during the Warriors' loss to the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night.

The most recent player to discuss the incident happens to be one of Green's past targets: Minnesota Timberwolves big man Rudy Gobert.

"I have empathy for him," Gobert told ESPN after the Timberwolves' 119-101 win over the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday night. "You see somebody that's not well inside and suffering. You take away the game and all that, and you want somebody to be well and be able to do what we do every night and compete and be happy."

Gobert understands how Nurki? feels, as the 7-foot-1 center had a similar on-court encounter with Green not too long ago.

After Klay Thompson and Jaden McDaniels got into a heated scuffle just 100 seconds into Golden State's Nov. 14 loss to Minnesota, Gobert tried to pull Thompson away before he was put into a chokehold by Green and dragged across the court for several seconds.

Green, Thompson and McDaniels all were ejected from the game, and the NBA later suspended Green for five games for his part in the altercation.

Green said in a recent interview with ESPN's Ramona Shelburne that he watched video of the Gobert incident on his phone, and immediately was taken aback by his actions.

"When I watched it back, I said, 'Damn, I held him much longer than I realized in that moment,' " Green told Shelburne. "But the reality is, in those moments, you don't know what time is. You don't have a sense of time."

Roughly one month after the Gobert incident, after committing to the team and promising to be better, Green found himself back in the same position. This time, it was in the third quarter of Tuesday's game against the Suns and came during an inbounds play on which Green believed Nurki? was holding his waist, so he swung around to sell a foul call but instead struck Nurki? in the face.

The result was an indefinite suspension by the NBA, which didn't want to put a number on the suspension because league officials want Green to take as much time as he needs to get himself right before returning to the court.

"I'm not sure what that really means, so it's hard to tell," Gobert said on the suspension being indefinite. "I mean, you don't want someone to get badly hurt. You've got to fix that. That's it."

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Play too much with rage, and rage will char you. Rage also will char everyone in your vicinity — enemy, ally or bystander — because it cannot be controlled.

Draymond Green used to play with edge, with nastiness and purpose. Now he just rages.

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Basketball IQ, charred.

Situational awareness, charred.

Dependability, charred.

What remains of the Golden State Warriors’ dynasty felt this burn, too. There may not be anything distinguishable left.

If so, it’s a sad and troubling way for its greatness to conclude. Fourteen months ago, the Warriors were still aglow after winning their fourth championship in eight seasons. Then Green shoved and punched teammate Jordan Poole during a preseason practice, triggering a series of violent, impulsive acts the Warriors enabled with their feckless attempts at discipline.

Now the Draymond problem has escalated into crisis at a time when the Warriors have never needed him more. The NBA stepped in late Wednesday night and handed Green an indefinite suspension after he swung wildly and struck the head of Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nurkic.

“Personally, I feel like that brother needs help,” Nurkic said afterward.

Just a month ago, the NBA banned Green for five games for putting Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert in a chokehold. In the first round of the playoffs last season, the league made Green sit one game for stomping on the chest of Sacramento Kings center Domantas Sabonis. And there are a dozen outbursts and near skirmishes over the past year that qualify as typical for Green and tend to get overlooked. He is allowed more leeway than any player, yet he still lives in the principal’s office.

After every punishment, the NBA tried to warn Green, articulating that he was being punished for repeated inappropriate behavior. After every punishment, Green showed fleeting remorse and then scoffed when asked whether he would change. Just like those nights when he keeps badgering referees even after he has received one technical foul, Green refused to stop until someone dared to stop him.

In theory, he won’t be able to play basketball again until he works on himself and gets the proper assistance to resolve some of his aggressive impulsivity and anger management issues. We all know, however, that such a process takes more time than Golden State, 10-14 and reeling entering Saturday, has to salvage this season. He should be gone at least two weeks, but after his absence reaches eight games or so, the benchmark probably will be downgraded to an evaluation of whether he has done just enough to stem the bad optics that rankle the league.

Yet if there is any lesson from the Ja Morant gun-flashing saga, it’s the ineffectiveness of superficial discipline. Morant went away last season to work on his issues, supposedly, and he returned eight games later, right on time for the playoffs, only to engage in more social media stupidity as soon as his postseason ended. He made the league regret trusting that he had learned from his mistakes. So NBA Commissioner Adam Silver responded with a 25-game suspension to start this season, one that has left a playoff Memphis Grizzlies team with one of the league’s worst records. While the cases of Morant and Green are vastly different, the difficulty juggling justice, rehabilitation and a franchise’s hopes presents a similar conundrum. This time, the NBA should be motivated to make Green do extra to convince them he can play basketball without morphing into a pro wrestling villain.

Green should have to sit for a painfully long time and complete thorough reentry criteria because everyone will look like indifferent — or, worse, weak — fools if Green makes a swift return and immediately reverts to uncivil behavior.

For inspiration to stay the course, the league needs only to look at the Warriors’ mollification of nearly every Green controversy. Again and again, Golden State has tiptoed around managing him, hopeful to lower his temperature but careful not to chide the intensity out of him. The Warriors needed to rebuke his rage. Instead, their softer methods merely placated Green and failed to address most of what seethed inside him.

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For competitive reasons, the Warriors thought they were being rational. Penalize him too harshly, and they penalize themselves, both during his absence and afterward if he returned a more docile athlete. As a 6-foot-6 post player in a sport being overtaken by taller, skinnier and more skilled big men, Green thrives with his mind and physicality.

He is a long-armed power forward who often runs the Warriors’ complex read-and-react offense and defends just about every position. He is a winner who doesn’t need to score to make an impact, an invaluable and unselfish four-time all-star. Green, a former second-round pick, still competes with an underdog’s indignation, which transforms the Warriors from a Stephen Curry-led offensive spectacle to a steely, ornery group of cutthroats.

The Warriors were once so talented, deep and full of veterans that they could absorb some of Green’s misconduct. Over the years, time has diminished them. In 2019, their most dominant phase ended when Kevin Durant left after three seasons. Salary cap restrictions and the luxury tax made it difficult to acquire high-quality role players. Stabilizing influences such as Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston retired. Equipped with three lottery picks across the 2020 and 2021 drafts, the Warriors were unable to find a star. The highest of those picks, 2020 No. 2 overall selection James Wiseman, played just 60 games for Golden State before the organization traded him.

The inability to meet a championship standard in replenishing the roster has left the Warriors overly dependent on Curry, Green and Klay Thompson, who are deep into their 30s. Curry remains a superstar, but Thompson has been an inconsistent Splash Brother who also struggles defensively. And Green can’t stay on the court because he would rather deliver cheap shots than grab rebounds.

When Green sucker-punched Poole in October 2022, the Warriors needed to hammer him. It seemed like a critical moment for him and for a franchise attempting the tricky task of chasing championships and developing the young core of Poole, Wiseman, Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody. But the team reinstated Green in time for him to avoid missing any regular season action. The Warriors tolerated his wayward sin and hoped to smooth things over because they were desperate for toughness. Their failings in maintaining the roster have created an exaggerated need for Green and center Kevon Looney to anchor them in the post. They’re now paying a greater price for acting desperate than they may have if they had forced Green to deal with his problems 14 months ago.

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Maybe the NBA’s decision will make Green change. Maybe it won’t.

Since Green punched Poole, the Warriors have gone 54-52 in the regular season. Poole was traded to the Washington Wizards during the offseason, and that young core is down to Kuminga and Moody, both of whom seem like candidates to be attached to a big trade soon if the Warriors can’t turn around their season. Green’s future is in the hands of the NBA now, and the stakes are higher than ever.

Golden State needs him to rebound. If he can’t, it will be hard to move on from an undersized power forward who turns 34 in March, has three seasons remaining on a $100 million contract and plays under heavy scrutiny from the league office.

“The tone has obviously changed from any other suspension,” Curry told reporters. “Times have passed where we’re just here because we’re playing basketball. … You’ve got to take a step back and make sure everybody is right.”

Green is not all right. He has been wrong for too long.

The Warriors thought they were handling him well enough to preserve their dynasty. They didn’t realize they were stoking his rage. It was a disastrous miscalculation.

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SAN FRANCISCO -- When the San Francisco Giants set out this offseason to improve on a disappointing 2023 season, adding athleticism, defense and the ability to put the ball in play were priorities.

South Korean star Jung Hoo Lee filled all those roles.

"We think this is an absolutely perfect fit," Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said Friday at a news conference introducing Lee to the Bay Area.

"As we've talked about entering this offseason, our goals were to get more athletic as a team from an offensive standpoint, to make more contact and play the kind of baseball where the industry seems to be trending toward," Zaidi said. "Honestly, as we looked at our options this offseason, there was no player, no target who was more of a perfect fit for what we were hoping to achieve than Jung Hoo."

The baseball skills were evident from the extensive scouting the Giants did of Lee's play in the Korean league and only reinforced with his play last spring in the World Baseball Classic. That earned Lee a $113 million, six-year contract.

Lee also showed off a bit of his personality during his news conference, punctuating an opening statement he gave in English with an emphatic "Let's Go Giants" and giving himself the nickname "Grandson of the wind" in homage to his father, Jong Beom Lee, who was called "Son of the wind" for his speed that the younger Lee said he won't be able to match.

"It's an exciting day," Zaidi said. "Obviously, he's got a personality that really shines through, even through a translator. I think for us it's a great baseball fit, but we're also mindful about creating excitement and energy around the organization. You can definitely feel that today."

San Francisco has missed the playoffs in each of the past two seasons after winning a franchise-record 107 games and the NL West in 2021.

The Giants had missed out on some big-ticket free agents the past two offseasons, including when Shohei Ohtani decided last week to sign with the rival Los Angeles Dodgers.

They also lost out to the New York Yankees in the pursuit of slugger Aaron Judge last offseason and then decided not to finalize a $350 million, 13-year agreement with shortstop Carlos Correa after concerns arose from his physical dating to a 2014 surgery on his right leg.

Lee, 25, was posted by South Korea's Kiwoom Heroes on Dec. 4, and if he stays for the entire contract, the Giants would owe the Heroes an $18,825,000 posting fee. If he chooses to opt out after four years, the posting fee would be reduced to $12,675,000. San Francisco also would owe an additional fee of 15% for any earned bonuses or escalators.

San Francisco was so committed to Lee that general manager Pete Putila traveled to Korea just to see one brief appearance in October.

"It's really nice to tell a player an organization's interest level is where they will fly 30,000 miles to watch really one at-bat," said Scott Boras, who represents Lee.

Lee batted .318 with six homers and 48 RBIs in 86 games this year but broke his left ankle during a game against the Lotte Giants on July 22 and was sidelined for the remainder of the season.

Lee said he is 100% healed from the injury and looks forward to the challenge of playing in the majors against a higher-level of competition. But he's confident that he will be able to make the transition and is slated to be the team's Opening Day starter in center field.

"I'm a little embarrassed to say this, but from Opening Day on, the fans be impressed with the skill set," he said through an interpreter.

Last year, he hit .349 with career bests of 23 home runs and 113 RBIs in 142 games, while striking out only 32 times. He was voted rookie of the year in 2017 and MVP in 2022.

Lee also batted .429 with two doubles and five RBIs for South Korea in this year's WBC, where South Korea failed to advance from its first-round group.

"What we've seen of him in international play is almost as meaningful as what we saw from him in all of his time in the KBO," Zaidi said.

He hit .241 with three doubles, one homer and three RBIs in the 2021 Olympics, where South Korea lost to the United States in the semifinals and then to the Dominican Republic for the bronze medal.

Lee has a .340 career average with 65 homers and 515 RBIs for the Heroes, who were renamed from Nexen to Kiwoon ahead of the 2019 season. He is a six-time Golden Glove winner.

His father, Jong Beom, was Korean League MVP in 1994 and played in Japan for the Central League's Chunichi Dragons from 1998 to 2001.

The Warriors played their first full game without Draymond Green since he was suspended indefinitely for striking Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nurki? across the face earlier this week.

His presence in Golden State's loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday night was missed dearly by his teammates, but they're less worried about the basketball side of things and more focused on Green getting himself better.

"I'm super confident in his ability to do that and the conversations yesterday were about acknowledging that he can't do what he's been doing. He knows that. We know that. Everybody knows that," Warriors superstar Steph Curry told reporters after the game. "What that means to change, I think that's the search for the answer. That's the journey that we're on now. I think the tone has changed from any other suspension. Coach said it before the game, we're here cause we're playing basketball, we're wearing a Golden State Warriors jersey. We've been doing this for a long time and championships are a stake in terms of us being a contender. And he's a part of that.

"But you got to take a step back and make sure everyone is right, mentally and physically, to be able to perform. And take care of yourself. Everyone has their mountains to climb and Draymond's are his and I'm confident that he can get over the hump, no matter how long it takes to get there."

Green was tossed in the third quarter of Tuesday's loss to the Suns after officials assessed him with a Flagrant 2 foul for swinging at Nurki? and hitting him in the face during an inbounds play.

It was the third ejection of the season for the veteran forward.

Before the suspension, Green played in just 15 of Golden State's 23 games. He was ejected from three, suspended from five and missed two because of injury and one for personal reasons.

Meanwhile, Curry has been holding things down for the whole team this season, averaging 28.6 points on 46 percent shooting from the field and 41.3 percent from 3-point range, with five rebounds and 4.4 assists in 33.7 minutes. But the Warriors hold a 10-14 record and are losers in four of their last five games, "good" for 11th in the Western Conference.

When the Warriors have needed their leaders the most -- Curry, Green and Klay Thompson -- Curry has been the only one to consistently deliver. Between Thompson's shooting struggles and Green's inability to keep himself on the court -- Curry has been trying his very best to keep the team afloat.

"I mean it's been tough obviously trying to get our head on straight in a situation that we're in, he's in," Curry said. "Trying to focus as a team on basketball, coming out, performing and trying to win and get ourselves out of this funk. Didn't go our way again tonight. But the big picture is nobody is letting go of the rope. Nobody is trying to have any type of panic. For Draymond to take care of himself, I know there's questions on what the suspension actually means time-wise and all that.

"The conversations we had yesterday were about him personally and making sure the focus is getting right, getting on a path that's going to allow him to be who he needs to be as a person, as a man, father, husband and a basketball player -- in that order. That journey is going to be challenging, but we're all here to support him. And try to hold it down while he's gone. It's a tough situation all the way around but we are capable of getting through it, himself included."

The decision to suspend Green indefinitely was the best decision for Green, the Warriors and the league. NBA executive vice president and head of basketball operations Joe Dumars said league officials didn't want to put a number on the suspension because they truly want Green to get the help he needs and take as much time as possible to do so.

However long that might be -- Curry will be there by his longtime teammate's side.

"Just to be support. I don't necessarily know the program or the requirements, the things he needs to do. But I'm here as a friend and as a support to lean in on for being there for him," Curry said. "Whatever that means. Yesterday it was a conversation for us as a team to understand where we currently are, where we're trying to go. Holding each other accountable, holding Draymond accountable, too.

"And what needs to change for us to be right as a team, with him involved in that. Every day is a new challenge, literally, and that's going to be something that we have to be a support for him."

Thompson, who had the best game of the season in Thursday's loss, can't help but feel Green's absence on the court. He misses his teammate, but more than anything, he misses his friend.

"It's tough because Draymond is a huge part of what we do, and we're going to miss him dearly," Thompson said. "We know he's going to come back even better. A changed person. I miss him just as a friend, as a brother. I love him to death and I can't wait 'til he comes back.

"Obviously there's a big hole in our team right now but we're going to do the best we can to withstand his absence and keep playing our hardest."