There are few players in the NBA who are better at using disrespect as motivation than Draymond Green, no matter whether that disrespect is real or imagined.
We got another example of that Thursday, when Green was apparently upset and motivated by a quote from Utah Jazz coach Quin Snyder that roughly said that letting Green shoot might be a good plan.
The quote, sent to Green by his mother, apparently played a role in a big night that saw him go 4-for-6 from beyond the arc.
“I’m really not the right guy to talk junk to,” Green said Saturday via Connor Letourneau of SFGate.com. “You kind of wake up somebody else. Maybe he learned. Or maybe he’ll try it again. But I’m really not the right person to do that against.”
The thing is, Snyder almost certainly wasn’t trying to talk junk. He was just stating his gameplan, which is one used by a number of teams in the NBA. Sure, Green is a good shooter, but opposing coaches would prefer to see him pulling up from deep rather than Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, or Kevin Durant.
Of course, this is Draymond Green that we’re talking about. As we’ve learned, in his mind, challenging him to do basically anything is disrespecful in his mind. Perhaps these comments played a role in this incident involving Snyder late in the same game.
