Draymond Green: A Golden Double-Edged Sword
In the past three seasons, the NBA has undergone a dramatic change. The King returned to Cleveland, relinquishing his title of “Most Hated Player” for a few years until Kevin Durant made a Lebron-esque move that inspired basketball fans across the globe to learn to hate all over again. Steph Curry, a slightly above average point guard with the weak ankles became a two-time MVP and helped spark the three-point revolution. But, the most surprising thing in the last three years was the success of a Michigan State “tweener” named Draymond Green.
However, Draymond Green has not only shown himself to be arguably the most valuable player on the Warriors, he’s also at times has shown himself to be their greatest potential detriment. Most recently, Draymond told the press after Game 3 after being asked about possibly winning Game 4, that “It will be very satisfying to do that…That is a great feeling, winning on somebody else’s floor, celebrating on their floor, celebrating in their locker room, quieting their crowd.”, which proved to be extra motivation for the Cavs, most notably Kyrie Irving, who referenced the comment in his interview after Game 4. Knowing this, can we assume that maybe Draymond has been motivating the Cavaliers all this time? What if in the Cleveland locker room, in the spot where they used to house Zydrunas Ilgauskas, they have a literal bulletin board filled with Draymond quotes? Whenever they need extra motivation, they turn to the board, peruse for the perfect piece of trash talk and remove it for all to read. Let’s test the theory.
Say you’re Ty Lue, and your super team is on the verge of being defeated for the second year in a row by the same team, only this time you’re the head couch. Panicked, knowing that you’ll probably be replaced before July 4th weekend, you do an internet deep dive, searching for answers. You know Lebron and Kyrie aren’t the problem, its the role guys, the JRs and the Shumps of the world that aren’t playing to the level of the competition. And while looking at Youtube videos of last years finals, you stumble across a diamond in the rough. You immediately email the following video to the whole team.
In an interview with Ros Gold-Onwude (Steve Kerr’s favorite reporter), Draymond spits a childish freestyle about the Cavaliers. After seeing this, a shirtless J.R. grabs his hoverboard, Channing and RJ jump on their two-seater bike and Mozgov carries Delly piggybacked all the way to the Q, and so begins the of events that cause the birth of the 3–1 lead memes.
But seriously, here’s why I think Draymond knows that his mouth (and his natural bodily reactions) are the part of the reason the Warriors blew a 3–1 lead. After Game 5 of the 2017 NBA Finals, instead of coming out and trashing the Cavaliers, Draymond instead chose to praise them. Draymond is learning how to properly handle interactions with the media. What is said in the heat of the moment during an NBA game is one thing, but if you put someone or some team on blast in front of the whole world, you’re calling unneeded attention to yourself.
If I’m Steve Kerr, I have zero issue with Draymond basking in the crowds boos or talking trash to players on the court, but when the antics don’t stop after the game, and continue into the post game press-conferences, I’d pull him aside and tell him he’s only making everyone else’s job harder. Steve Kerr comes from the Gregg Popovich school of coaching, where the first rule is don’t talk to the press and the second is if you do don’t tell them anything. But after watching Draymond give a regular, run of the mill speech akin to those of Lebron and Kevin Durant, it tells me he is thinking about what he says and how it affects his team.
Did Draymond correct his greatest fault? Will we be deprived of gifs and videos of him throwing outlandish kicks and punches? Is this the end of amazing media clips of Draymond being almost as petty as Kevin Durant? Probably not entirely, but then again, maybe Cleveland really does have a bulletin board hidden away in the bowels of the Q.