Draymond details ‘rock bottom' of Warriors career, strolls down hallway of mind originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Draymond Green is a villain. A mentor. A bully. A charmer. He’s a basketball genius, a restless soul, a four-time NBA champion, a four-time NBA All-Star and a two-time Olympic gold medalist whose unruly conduct last season kept him off the court for 21 games.
His spasms of disorder did more than that. The vehement events of the 2023-24 NBA season hurt Draymond, his family and, lastly, the Golden State Warriors. It forced him to check himself. To seek rehabilitation for the emotions behind his on-court violence.
And now, 14 months after returning from his last suspension, words are coming off Draymond’s tongue with the same passion and conviction with which he has played basketball for 13 seasons with the Warriors. The conversation is about life, and he is the tour guide for a reflective journey down the long and sometimes dark hallways of his mind.
“The bottom? Man. Oh man. How do you find the bottom?” Green says on NBC Sports Bay Area’s “Dubs Talk” podcast, which debuted Friday. “There’s been some moments where … Wow. Wow.
“The bottom, I would have to say, for me personally, the bottom was last year. And the reason that was the bottom is basketball is one thing. You can talk about basketball all you want. I really don’t care. I know what I bring to the basketball game. I know what I’m capable of. I know what’s going on. So that don’t really bother me.
“But last year, my character was under attack. Who I am as a human being was under attack.”
The tipping point came on Dec. 12, 2023, when Green whacked Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nurkić in the face in the third quarter of a Warriors-Suns game in Phoenix. That led to a suspension deemed “indefinite” because one month earlier, Green jumped Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert – whose arms were around Golden State’s Klay Thompson – from behind and put him in a modified chokehold. The Green-Gobert incident was a five-gamer, so the NBA felt it necessary to increase the suspension for Green’s strike on Nurkić.
Public reaction was swift and heavy with presumptions, with opinions undoubtedly prejudiced by Draymond’s shocking punch to the face of then-teammate Jordan Poole in October 2022. NBA head of basketball operations Joe Dumars, a longtime friend of Green, delivered the indefinite suspension, explaining that he wanted to see Draymond get himself mentally and emotionally “right” before coming back to the game.
As Green attended to his business, speculation and allegations were rampant. He heard and saw it. His wife, Hazel Renee, coped with it. His children, his extended family and friends all were in the uncomfortable position of trying to answer for the man they knew and care for or even love.
“I take pride in who I am as a human being,” Green says. “I take pride in being a stand-up guy. If I see you and walk past you, I’m going to say, ‘Hi.’ I take pride in just being a great person. For my character to be under attack, that bothered me to my core because the things that were being said isn’t an accurate depiction of me and who I am.
“So, I would say that was the bottom. I couldn’t play the game that I love. I couldn’t play the game the way that I love. And by the way, ‘He’s beating his wife at home. He’s beating his kids because look what he does on a basketball court.’ That’s crazy … to have to live through that.”
“But then, for my family to also have to live through that,” he adds, “that was kind of rock bottom for me. Like my wife opening her Instagram and [seeing] ‘I’m so sorry’ [comments]. ‘I know you’re getting beaten at home.’ Beaten?
“I’m the guy that when my wife is on one, I walk into the other room. I don’t even want to go back and forth like that. It’s not even in my demeanor. I think it’s because people watch me on the basketball court and my intensity. I am probably as non-confrontational as you going to find. I’m going the opposite way.”
How does this not touch the heart of anyone who has one? How does this not force anyone to face their worst characteristics and try to seek peace within?
Green 35, says, he “hates” confrontation off the court. On the court, he lives for it. His willingness to engage in competition, usually with bigger players, is part of the equation that makes him great. At 6-foot-6, he’s the best small big man in the NBA and probably has considered having that description tattooed on his chest.
There is no question that this season has revealed a less combustible Draymond than the player he was the previous two seasons. He recorded a league- and career-high 21 technical fouls in 2022-23 and served a one-game suspension for planting his foot on the chest of Sacramento center Domantas Sabonis in the first round of the 2023 NBA playoffs against the Kings. Green this season has been assessed 12 technical fouls, but there have been no suspensions. The Warriors are 35-23 when he plays, 6-8 when he does not.
“With help, I worked my way out of it,” Green says. “And I’m back from it. But that was rock bottom for me.”
The noise related to Green’s antics has quieted because they are fewer. The Warriors are happier. And Draymond, among the leaders in the Defensive Player of the Year race, is performing better with his emotions on simmer than when they boil over.
