Draymond Green does not want to be compared to past players, particularly Charles Barkley.
The Golden State Warriors forward was asked Sunday if he saw himself as a modern-day Barkley, and he was not having the comparison.
“Hell no,” Green said, via Chris Haynes of ESPN. “I’m the modern-day Draymond Green. F— no.”
Green and Barkley are both tenacious, trash-talking players who overcame a lack of size to be excellent scorers and rebounders, but Green didn’t take much from Barkley’s demeanor.
“[Chuck] told y’all in ’90-what that he wasn’t your kid’s role model anyway…So there you have it,” Green said. “He wasn’t my role model. I grew up in Saginaw, Michigan…that’s what you do, you talk, you talk junk during basketball. That’s how I was raised. I was raised in a family like that so I didn’t need a Charles Barkley to influence me.
“I was raised by Mary Babers. In the Babers family, that’s what you do. You speak your mind. It ain’t got nothing to do with Chuck. I wasn’t a Charles Barkley fan growing up. No disrespect to Chuck. He’s a great player, but as I got older, I watched his game because I knew he was undersized and the things that he could do, I tried to add some of that stuff to my game. But nah, he didn’t influence me at all.”
Green has been quite critical of Barkley in the past, but it’s clear he wants to be his own man. That comparison did not sit well with him.
