ESPN already has a number of former NBA players appearing on their network, but now they could be going after a current one as well.
Andrew Marchand of the New York Post reported on Thursday that ESPN is interested in hiring Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green for their “NBA Countdown” show. Green would only be available on occasion however as an active player.
The former Defensive Player of the Year Green has already dipped his toe into television. He has made guest appearances on TNT’s “Inside the NBA” and even joined CNN as a contributor last year.
Draymond Green is LeBron James’ longtime rival on the court, but Green feels similar to The King in at least one regard.
The Golden State Warriors star responded to one of his fan accounts on social media this week. The fan posted some of Green’s best stat lines from the 2020-21 season, including several triple-doubles or near-triple-doubles.
“@kingjames the washed king but I’m somewhere on the all washed team too,” wrote Green along with several laughing-face emojis.
James often refers to himself as “#WashedKing” on social media to poke fun at all the critics who think that his skills are declining. He most recently used the hashtag in response to being snubbed in an ESPN list.
As for Green, who is close friends with James off the court, he actually had a career-high 8.9 assists per game last season to go along with 7.0 points and 7.1 rebounds. Green also made his fourth All-Defensive First Team and is coming off a gold medal win with Team USA at the Tokyo Olympics. Thus, you should sleep on Green (plus James for that matter) at your own risk.
Kevin Durant and Draymond Green openly had issues with one another before Durant left the Golden State Warriors in 2019, but they have since smoothed things over. Now, they are both essentially blaming the team for how the situation was handled.
In an interview for Bleacher Report’s “Chips” series that was released on Wednesday, Durant and Green discussed the infamous argument they had during the 2018-19 season that led to Green being suspended. The spat happened near the end of an eventual overtime loss to the Los Angeles Clippers, when Durant ripped Green for not passing the ball. Durant said the argument itself was less of an issue than the way the Warriors’ brass handled it.
“It wasn’t the argument. It was the way that everybody … (head coach) Steve Kerr acted like it didn’t happen, (general manager) Bob Meyers tried to just discipline you and think that would put the mask over everything,” Durant said.
“We needed that. We needed to throw all that s— out on the table and say, ‘Yo, Dray, K, that was f—ed up that we even had to go through that. Let’s just wipe our hands of that and go finish the task,'” Durant said. “I don’t think we did that. We tried to dance around it.”
Green then explained how Warriors management told him he needed to apologize, but he wanted to work things out with Durant on his own terms.
“I told them, ‘I’ll talk to (Durant), but y’all aren’t gonna tell me what I need to say.’ … Ultimately, they realized we’re not getting through to him and are gonna try again in the morning,” Green recalled. “We met the next morning and they said, ‘Alright, you slept on it. You ready to apologize?’ I told them right then and there, ‘Y’all are about to f— this up. The only person that can make this right is me and (Durant). There is nothing that y’all can do and y’all are going to f— this up.’ And in my opinion, they f—ed it up.”
Durant agreed, though we can’t help but feel like this is revisionist history. Durant has admitted that he was bothered by Green telling him the Warriors don’t need him. Green has said he took issue with Durant letting his free agency decision drag out. Perhaps the two could have worked through those issues, but blaming Kerr and Golden State’s front office seems convenient now that Durant and Green are back to being buddies.
You can see the relevant portion of the interview below, but beware that it contains inappropriate language:
Draymond Green definitely had all of the receipts saved.
After Team USA Basketball won the gold medal in Tokyo this week, Green took an opportunity to troll all of the analysts who had overreacted to their string of losses in exhibition play last month.
Green targeted ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins, FOX Sports’ Colin Cowherd, and several others in a series of tweets. Here were some of the best ones.
The victory marks Green’s second Olympic gold medal to go along with three NBA titles. That puts him in an elite class that is only occupied by players like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Michael Jordan.
Kevin Durant and Draymond Green have a complicated history, but the two NBA stars were quite pleased to come together in bashing their critics after Team USA won the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday.
Durant, who scored a game-high 29 points in the United States’ 87-72 win over France, got on Instagram live immediately after the game. He expressed disbelief that many analysts ranked Team USA as the fourth-best team in Tokyo. Green joined the video and called out Kendrick Perkins, who has been critical of Team USA in recent weeks like many others.
You can see the video below, but beware that it contains inappropriate language:
“They had some power rankings out, they had us fourth behind Slovenia,” Durant said. “Talking about (how) they’re catching up to us. Are you serious? This skill is unmatched.”
“Kendrick Perkins, you talk a lot of s—, a lot of s—,” Green added. “Act like you American.”
You can understand why the fourth consecutive gold medal for Team USA felt sweet for the players. They struggled early on and lost to France in the group stage, which led to them being ruthlessly mocked with Twitter memes. They also lost two exhibition games prior to the actual tournament, which had many anticipating an early exit in Tokyo.
Draymond Green basically runs on a lack of respect. Sometimes, he even finds it from his team’s social media folks.
The Golden State Warriors posted a slideshow of notable shots from rookie photoshoots over the years. The images included those of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, as well as more recent rookie portraits from Jordan Poole and Eric Paschall. Notably missing was Green — notably to him, anyway, because he called it out in the comments.
Green is definitely among the core members of the Golden State dynasty who, like Curry and Thompson, has been with the team since entering the NBA. This clearly wasn’t about that, though. They were trying to spotlight some cool pictures. It’s why Curry and Thompson were featured alongside the likes of Jordan Bell.
Hey, whatever motivates Green, the Warriors are probably fine with it. That said, Green’s mood seems like it might be dictated more based on what the Warriors do with their roster this offseason.
Draymond Green criticized the NBA for being “soft” after the reaction to an altercation on Thursday night.
Kevin Durant and PJ Tucker got into it during Game 3 of the Nets-Bucks series in Milwaukee (video here). Both players received technical fouls for the incident.
What bothered Green was the way security ran onto the court to try and separate the players.
This league has gotten so soft, security ran on the court
The Golden State Warriors veteran just complained on Shaq’s podcast that the NBA doesn’t do enough to protect players in fan incidents. Now he’s jumping on their case when arena personnel step in to protect players? It makes no sense.
You can’t ask for a league where nobody bothers the players and then complain when security tries to protect.
Draymond loves to look and talk tough, but it all comes crashing down when someone points out the hypocrisy.
Draymond Green was talking about the Washington Wizards on Thursday night. But that may not have been what he was really talking about.
The Golden State Warriors star was back on TNT’s “Inside the NBA” as a studio analyst. During a group discussion about the Wizards, Green gave an interesting take on what the team’s plans should be moving forward. He said Washington needs to decide if they are committed to Russell Westbrook. If so, Green said that they should go get veteran players to complement Westbrook and Bradley Beal instead of draft picks.
“Getting draft picks and placing them next to two All-Stars? That don’t work,” Green said bluntly.
Of course, that sounds suspiciously like Golden State’s own situation with Green and Stephen Curry. The Warriors chose to keep and develop No. 2 overall pick James Wiseman this year. But Wiseman had a hard time fitting in as a rookie and ended up suffering a season-ending knee injury. Though Curry had an MVP-caliber year and Green continued to make a strong two-way impact, Golden State still failed to make the playoffs, in part due to their odd roster construction.
Draymond Green shared a funny story about Klay Thompson on Wednesday.
Green was participating in a question-and-answer session on Bleacher Report’s app and was asked for his favorite memory or moment regarding Thompson, his longtime teammate.
Green shared that Thompson once ran into a wall at a hotel in Miami and needed stitches. Thompson was apparently embarrassed by the injury and tried to tell his teammates that the injury stemmed from a fight at the club. Green suggested that Thompson was wasted, and that led him to bump into the wall.
Thompson is regarded as an easygoing player and is generally well-liked. Seeing him involved in something embarrassing like that and then trying to slyly play it off must have been amusing for his Warriors teammates.
Damian Lillard may be after one of his longtime Western Conference rivals on the recruiting trail.
Green’s Golden State Warriors were eliminated on Friday with a loss in the play-in tournament to the Memphis Grizzlies. After the game, the Portland Trail Blazers star Lillard retweeted a post that read, “Keep tripping on Draymond, he’ll be in a Blazers jersey on y’all a–.”
Damian Lillard retweeted a post about Draymond Green joining the Blazers after the Warriors were eliminated by the Grizzlies pic.twitter.com/JCNbmGMUp1
The former Defensive Player of the Year Green cannot become a free agent until 2023, so the Blazers would have to trade for him if they want Green any time in the near future.
