Warriors' Draymond Green has revelation that brought out 'nicer' version
01/13/2025 02:29 PM
Before the Golden State Warriors take on the Toronto Raptors on Monday night, it has been an important year for star Draymond Green compared to last season when served multiple suspensions for physical altercations. While Green’s status for the Warriors is up in the air for Monday, there is no doubt that he feels there has been a change between the two seasons in terms of himself.
Green would say to ESPN that while he is a “really, really, really nice guy,” he still has the competitive edge that everybody knows and loves as he “will fight you tooth and nail to the f—ing bitter end.” Still, with the amount of mental turmoil that Green went through in such physical altercations with Phoenix Suns’ Jusuf Nurkic and Minnesota Timberwolves’ Rudy Gobert, he cites that there is a change.
“Things are totally different,” Green said. “I’m different.”
While there is some trash talk from Green to Nurkic and himself still pushing the buttons of others on the court, it has not resulted in the chaos that ensued last year when he went through an indefinite suspension. One who has noticed this change is a close friend of Green and one who played for his alma mater of Michigan State in Travis Walton who spoke about him being “nicer.”
“He’s more intentional,” Walton said. “He’s more softer with things. Maybe when he’s ready to erupt [in a training session], he’s like, ‘Let me look at it from a different perspective,’ [where] the old Draymond would’ve went off. The old Draymond would’ve had a lot more to say than the Draymond right now. That’s a nicer Draymond.”
Warriors’ Draymond Green on how team can regain edge
So far this season, Green has averaged 8.7 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 5.6 assists per game while shooting 41.7 percent from the field and 36.2 percent from beyond the arc. He is still a crucial part of being one of the team’s leaders and veteran presence along with Stephen Curry as calling out the Warriors and Green himself for losing soul.
Despite Golden State starting hot, they have lost a ton of luster as they are now at 19-19 and have lost six of their last 10 contests. He would speak about his physicality with opposing players maybe being a way to hype up the team if they are struggling, but has acknowledged that there has to be another way.
“I hate losing,” Green said via Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN on what’s important. “If I’m losing, you’re going to ratchet up everything that you have in order to change that. With that comes high emotion. With that comes an engagement that honestly isn’t quite welcome in this league. And so it’s a challenge. I just got to understand that [pushing the line] can’t be the way, that my teammates need me out there.”
“F—ing everybody up!” Green continued when asked how the team can regain their winning ways. “No, I’m just playing. It’s just about really being in the mix … causing havoc, creating turnovers. When things go wrong, who’s going to be there to stop the [negative] body language from [becoming contagious]? Having that edge.”
As mentioned, Golden State is 19-19 which puts them 11th in the Western Conference as they prepare to take on the Raptors on Monday.
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