In this episode of The Draymond Green Show, host Draymond Green interviews NBA star Bradley Beal. The conversation centers on three main themes. First, Beal reflects on his close bond with former teammate John Wall, describing Wall as a brother and the best passer he’s ever played with. He explains how Wall’s injury and subsequent trade forced Beal to assume point‑guard duties, accelerating his development as a ball‑handler, scorer, and playmaker. Second, Beal details the personal growth he experienced during the year he was essentially the sole primary ball‑handler, learning to navigate double teams, run pick‑and‑rolls, and score at a higher volume, which culminated in a 30‑point‑per‑game season. Third, Beal and Green discuss Russell Westbrook, with Beal defending Westbrook’s reputation as a teammate, condemning the media narrative that paints Westbrook as a bad teammate, and emphasizing Westbrook’s relentless work ethic, motor, and impact on winning basketball. Throughout, Green interjects with affirmations, and the tone remains conversational and supportive, highlighting Beal’s respect for both Wall and Westbrook while acknowledging the challenges of injuries and media criticism.
Chapters
What's up everybody? It's Draymond Green. Make sure you subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel below so you don't miss any more of this great content going forward. But in my opinion, you play with two of arguably the most athletic point guards that ever come through the NBA. Now, like I said, there's somebody in Memphis challenging that now.
Yes, sir.
And no disrespect to D-Rose as well. We all know D-Rose was also in that category as well. But we got this young dude in Memphis challenging all of that right now. And he want all that smoke. He ain't ducking no wreck. He carrying his guys. I got a lot of respect for Ja. But in playing with those two guys, and it's two separate questions. One is a lot of people try to make it out to be you and Ja hated each other. —which I didn't really appreciate because we are men. And if somebody hate each other, there's no need for me to hide it from y'all. I ain't got nothing to do with y'all. So I didn't like that people tried to create that narrative. But where did you stand as far as like the team moving on from John? Because like y'all were arguably— Yeah. The best backcourt in the league for years. I mean, y'all two, Steph and Klay, James and CP, like, you know, it's been some backcourts in this league and I thought y'all two were arguably one of the best. How did that affect you? Like, that was the biggest trade, I mean, that you've gone through in your career as far as someone around you being traded. How did that affect you?
It was tough, bro, because John, is a brother, like still to this day. Like I pick up the phone, call John, if I need him, he here, right? And it's the same vice versa. And like you said, we both hated that there was a picture painted that we didn't like each other and we didn't like playing with each other. And us being young guys at the time, like we didn't necessarily, we weren't mature enough to just have a conversation. We would kind of read into it. Mm-hmm. Right? And so it was just kind of like a silent, like, "Dang, you feel like that?" "Nah, he can't feel like that." Until eventually he was like, "All right, now, boom. Yo, bro, how you feeling? This how you feel?" "Nah." "This is how you feel?" "Nah." So once we had that conversation, it was just, "Okay, that's dead." Right? It's just noise to kind of get us rattled or get us off our track. Right? I loved playing with John. Like John, I say to this day is the best passer I've played with. He's probably the fastest guy I've played with with the ball. And his ability, his athleticism, his ability to be able to pass while running so fast to the corner, being able to find guys, like it was night and day, right? And the toughest part when we moved on from him, was he was injured, right? The toughest part was there was some stuff that went on in the summer that front office didn't necessarily abide by. And they just, they were like, "Okay, we got it, we're done, right? We're done." And so it kind of, it was outta my hands because I was coming to camp thinking, You know, John's ready to go, right? Boom, next day he's gone. And so that was very tough and emotional because he never came back from the injury and we never got a chance for us to play. When John first went down, that was the first chance for me to really blossom into like who I feel like I've grown into today, right?
Absolutely.
In a modern game, right? I've become more of a ball handler, putting the ball on the floor, shooting off the dribble. More so than coming off pin downs, catch and shoot like I did my first 5 years.
Absolutely.
Granted, it's unfortunate John went down, but it gave me a chance to play point, to run more ball screens, high pick and rolls, to be able to facilitate, understand how defenses guard and how to manipulate 'em, how to score easier. And he ended up missing, I think he got hurt like December, and missed the rest of that year, then missed the whole year the next year. And I had, I literally had a year to myself to operate.
Mm-hmm.
And just kind of learn, right? And I went through double teams. When John first went down, I got double teamed. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to handle it. And so literally the next year I had a whole year to adjust and boom, score 30 a game, right? And it was just like, okay, I get it. Like I understand it. Like I'm, now I'm evolving. Right? And so that summer I'm like, boom, I've changed. Like I'm way better than what I was when we were younger playing Boston in '16, '17 and lost in the second round. Way better player than that. Right? And I knew John was pretty much climbing to his prime right around this time. So I'm like, well, I'm a newly, tuned up player waiting on this athletic freak of nature to come back. Like, let's give it one more shot. Let's give it one more shot.
Facts.
But—
Absolutely.
We never, I would say that was one thing that if I can go back, I wish we could have had, but we moved on and we moved into Russ, right? So it was a situation to where, Yes, I was frustrated, you know, my brother's gone, but I understood who we were gaining. Right? I understood who Russ was. And this is an MVP we're getting. Right? And there's no disrespect to John, but Russ has won MVP. Russ is, you know how Russ play. Russ is, he is balls to the wall every single night. He is going hard. Every night. Every single night.
Facts.
And for me, I've learned a lot from that because every single night we don't always wanna bring it. We don't always wanna— That's a fact. That's a fact. Right? We tired some nights, we banged up a lot of nights. We, you know, whatever the case may be, we dealing with something, you know, mentally, family, whatever the case may be. I've literally seen this dude lace 'em up and play as hard as he possibly could every single night, bro. And he pushed me. Come on, all I kept hearing all year was, "Come on, B. Keep going, B. Keep going, B. Keep going." And I never understood that drive. I'm like, "How does he do this? How does he do this?" But being in the fire with him, being— Yeah. Around him on a day-to-day, seeing how he prepare. He up at 6 in the morning getting work done on his body, going in late, doing the same thing. Like, I'm like, okay, that's why. That's why.
No, for sure. And I also wanna ask a follow-up question on Russ. Like you said, the way he play hard, the way he get ready on a nightly basis for all of these years, I have the utmost respect for. That motor that he has is a skill. And I don't think people give that skill enough credit, but having a motor is a skill. Two things. Number one is there's this notion of the way Russ plays to the outside world, that Russ is a bad teammate. What I've heard is from everybody who's played with him is he's one of the best teammates they've ever had. Mm-hmm. Can you talk about Russ as a teammate? And then how do you feel about all the slander that he's getting this year as if he not fucking Russell Westbrook?
That shit piss me off. I ain't gonna lie, bro. It really frustrate me because especially being a guy that played with him now, like the disrespect, God, that shit gotta stop, bro.
It's ridiculous.
It's gotta stop. Because we acting like this man is not a Hall of Famer, right? Facts. First ballot. Oh, first ballot. First of all, let's, let's, like, the way he plays may not be your cup of tea.
Facts.
It may not be.
Facts. And that's okay.
Russ ain't gonna shoot a million threes. He's not.
Nor should he.
Nor should he. Russ is going—
Why?
Russ is going to play winning basketball. Russ is going to go get rebounds. Russ is gonna make assists. Russ is gonna take advantage of matchups he feel like he can. That's Russ.
Mm-hmm.
And he's gonna play 100 miles per hour. He's gonna play hard.
Absolutely.
If that's not your cup of tea, don't watch him. It's been working his whole career. You're gonna change him in year 14? Exactly. Exactly.
That's been my thing.
You was a fan of him 6 years ago, 8 years ago. Facts.
He played the same brand of basketball.
He plays the same way with every situation he's been in. He's played the same way. When Houston went to the conference finals, he played the same way. There's no difference. What do you expect? That is— how are you gonna change him? That's who he is.
