Celtics take 3-0 lead on Mavericks in NBA Finals + R.I.P. Jerry West | Draymond Green Show

We're this close to crowning an NBA champion. I like the Celtics, by the way, in 6. Jalen Brown's gonna be my MVP. MVP, and I love the Celtics in Game 1. But sign up, 90 seconds, put in the code COLIN, C-O-L-I-N. DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA. If you're a new customer, bet $5, that's it, just bet $5 and you'll get $150 instantly in bonus bets. The code COLIN, C-O-L-I-N, shows them that you're a new customer to get $150 in bonus bets only on DraftKings. The crown is yours. I'm leaning Celtics in 6, baby.

Before we get into it, this episode is brought to you in part by Hyperice. As you know, as a 12-year veteran myself, Dari, a lot of guys miss out on the recovery that it takes to play in the NBA. It's important that my body can bounce back as I get older. As I've told you all before, I am a super big fan of Hyperice. Especially the NormaTec boots because I just feel like Superman when I come out of them. And as you all know, um, or may not know, I'm letting you know, the NormaTec Elites are new. They're the best. They've ditched all those extra hoses and the control units from the old model so you can get on the go. If you need the NormaTec Elites, they are great. Uh, this one is fully self-contained. With a small set of buttons to select your compression level. Super easy to travel with and to get set up after a hard workout, after a game, or if it's for you who's not an athlete, after a hard day of work or walking around or chasing the kids around. Because by the way, as I get older, chasing these kids around, it's tough.

Hey.

And, and my son calls me old on the daily. So these are for you as well. On top of that, the NormaTec Elite packs 4 hours of battery life, which is enough juice to get full leg compression cycles in before games, after games, on the plane, after work, before work, at work. How about that? At work. You saw me podcasting in the NormaTec Elites and I was at work. That is my day job right now as we have lost and the finals are going on and we're not playing. So don't get me started on the tech inside this thing. The HyperIce has been pioneering recovery science for years and the brand new NormaTec Elite takes it to another dimension with 7 different compression levels to choose from. As I said before, it's not just for pro athletes, it is for you. Whoever is not a pro athlete, which most of you aren't pro athletes, and it is for you. So shop all your warm-up and recovery needs at Hyperice.com. Use code Draymond. For those of you who hate the name Draymond because you hate me, but you watch this podcast because you hate me. I got a gift for you. Use the code Draymond on hyperice.com for 15% off your order today. Exclusions may apply. All right, we're live. What's up everybody? Welcome back to the Draymond Green Show. Game 3 of the NBA Finals is in the books and the Dallas Mavericks were not able to come up with a win. And the reason I say it that way, is because, you know, there's this whole scriptwriter thing, you know, social media and stuff. And they say like, there's a script and like the script be written and that's just what it is. And as someone who played in the NBA, I wish I had the script because Jackson, my producer, who is an avid Boston Celtics fan, has on my rundown, Welcome back to the Draymond Green Show. We are here to break down Game 3 of the NBA Finals. The Dallas Mavericks, big win without— with Kristaps Porzingis out, and we have ourselves a series. Now, thank God I actually do my work before these things, and quite frankly, I just wanna let you Dallas Mavericks fans know he jinxed y'all. He did this on purpose. Because he is a Boston Celtics fan.

100%.

And he jinxed y'all. And so this rundown is wrong. However, we do not have our Champs Only guest tonight, Big Shot. Chance wasn't able to make it. So I do apologize to our audience. We will definitely have Chance on in the future so we can talk about that some, about the how bad the Warriors would beat the Pistons, the '04 Pistons, that is. But for now, we'll talk a little bit about the game. And quite frankly, if I'm honest, I don't really have much energy to talk about the game. And we'll talk about the legend, the logo, good friend, the great Jerry West passing away, my relationship with him. And yeah, we'll just, get into that. But first, the Celtics rode a monster second half on the way to the win. Jalen Brown really got it going in the win, which put the Celtics up 3-0. I thought, you know, that was a very big half for Jalen, very big half for the Celtics. But even going back, before we get into that, Um, JT 29, 5 and 6. Jalen Brown 38 and 8, 24 in the second half. Luka 27, 6 and 6. Kyrie 35, 2 assists, 3 boards. And you will ask the question, is this series over? Yes, this series is over. And quite frankly, you kind of knew this series was over towards the end of the first quarter when The Dallas Mavericks went up 25. I'm sorry y'all if I sound all over the place today. My mind really has been all over the place and, uh, I had a lot of stuff on my mind. So if I feel like I'm drifting a little bit, just bear with me because my feelings are very hurt. Uh, my heart is very hurt and I am very bothered today. So just bear with me. Um, appreciate you all tuning in and I did not want to not show up at all, but Just bear with me here. However, you, you kind of knew this series was over in the first quarter towards the end when Dallas had a 25 to 12 lead and then they did it and you know, you give up a dunk at the end of the first quarter. It's tough. You know, you start giving up threes to like Sam Hauser. That's how teams win championships. I always say championships are won 6 through 10, not 1 through 5. And Boston is really proving that. Like Peyton Pritchard, couple big moments in game 2. Sam Hauser, big moments in game 1, big moments in game 3. You know, like you got other Xavier Tillman tonight, huge minutes from Xavier Tillman tonight defensively. All the energy that he brought to the floor. Especially when the Celtics were lacking energy. X kind of went out there and was a stabilizer for them and brought great energy and kind of brought that group forward from an energy standpoint going in, you know, you're going to Game 3 on the road up 2-0, probably relaxed. And I thought Xavier Tillman did a great job coming in and bringing energy to a team that was struggling.

Kinda.

And then also, you know, the reality factor has set in for the Boston Celtics, which is like, You know, when you're watching boxing, boxers come out, they do their thing, they box a little bit, but the first few rounds, most boxers are kind of trying to figure out like their opponent. And once they take that first big shot, most boxers go one way or the other. And if you take that first big shot and you realize like, wow, Like, he can't knock me out. Like, he can't hurt me. The whole mindset of the boxer that took the other guy's big shot is like, he can't hurt me. I'm pressing forward now. And you could tell that's kind of the mindset of the Boston Celtics. It's like, their big shot can't hurt me. I'm pressing forward now. And every now and then you get lax in the 7th round and you may get dazed, but you know, you know, like this guy can't knock me out. And the boxers usually go on to finish the fight or stop the fight or win the fight. And that's kind of where the Celtics are. They know Dallas's best shot can't knock them out. And so they kind of mess around with the game. They go up, then they relax. They go up, they relax, come out relaxed because you know they can.

Yeah.

And so that's kind of where it is. Needless to say, when it was 30, you looked up and you're the Dallas Mavericks. And after all you've went through, number one, you can't give up that dunk to Jayson Tatum at the end of the quarter. That's crazy. And after all you done went through, you look up, start the second quarter, few seconds in, and you're down 32 to 31. That's just like a huge, huge body blow. Like you just kind of, it takes the, it knocks the wind out of you because you realize like, damn.

Ah.

Like, all right, let's just keep pushing. And now a big, big, big psychological thing is this. So last podcast I mentioned, uh, with me and Lou, we was talking about Jordan Poole's shot. And the reality is, if you remember that game, Boston had one on a crazy run in that quarter. And then Jordan Poole hit the shot and we went up 1 point. And the difference in between being up 1 point, or we went up 1 or 2 points. The difference in between being up 1 or 2 or down 1 or 2 is drastic because if you're up 1 or 2, 1 or 2, you go into the huddle and you like, yo, they just gave us their best shot. Like they, they spent all that, they spent all that energy. They still down. Like, let's go finish the game now. Like, let's make our run. And so just from a confidence standpoint, from a belief standpoint, you solid. But if you up 1 or down 1 or 2, and we had already lost like a game that we weren't supposed to lose to Boston in that series. If you're down 1 or 2, then you look up and it's like, huh? Like we did all of that and we down 1, like we down 2 going into the next quarter. It does something to you. So Boston, Dallas going into the half up 1 allowed Dallas to kind of hold on to the false hope of like, yo fellas, they made they run, we still got the lead, let's go. However, if you're Boston and you going into the second half, you going in and you like, yo, you see that? They just gave their best shot. You know, they just gave their best shot and Look at the score. We down one. Like, come on, let's go close these boys out. And then you come out like Boston and you like go up 20 points. It's kind of the way it goes. They realize that they can't hurt them. And so the series is effectively over. I do think it'll be a sweep and not because like Dallas will quit. I just think they've shown that Boston don't have enough. And so for all of us out there that kind of thought like Boston was gonna trick it off, we're wrong. And most people won't accept that.

Yeah.

I also wasn't like, you know, thinking that this would happen. But anyway, Happy that Xavier Tillman gonna get a ring. Another Spartan dog getting a ring. Happy for my brother JT. He gonna get a ring. But I love some of the— see some of the guys on Dallas get the ring too. JB playing incredible. Drew get another one. All right, funny story, right? Really funny story is Joel Embiid tweet, did the Bucks give them the championship? Them being Boston. And the answer, To Joel's question is yes, they actually did because they traded Jrue away. And like, I just think even in that trade, like you gotta find and do all you can to like keep Jrue because Jrue can guard bigger. So like there's, Jrue can play off the ball or on the ball. Like there's no fit mismatch with like Jrue and Dame. And I think like, I don't think Portland was hell-bent on getting Jrue Holiday. Like ultimately I think that's what they got, but I don't think they were hell-bent on it being Jrue. But, and I think there are some other things that the Boston, I mean Milwaukee could have done to keep Jrue. But yes, they did. Because if you think about it, it's crazy because you know, Brad Stevens won Executive of the Year, and well deserved. Like, to pull off that Draymond Green move was huge. Uh, he traded Marcus Smart away, and either Brad Stevens got some incredible intel on, like, Drew Holiday is gonna get traded soon and he's gonna go to Portland, and y'all will be able to send out nothing to Portland to get Drew Holiday back. And so it's okay to trade Marcus Smart. And the reality is, to me, it felt like Boston just panicked and didn't know what direction they were gonna go. And they just panicked and traded Marcus Smart. And then like, lo and behold, Milwaukee sends Jrue Holiday to Portland, who Jrue Holiday doesn't want to go to Portland. Jrue Holiday also wants to get an extension. Jrue Holiday also wants to play winning basketball and don't want to play like the losing basketball in Portland.

Yeah.

Um, and because they're rebuilding. And so lo and behold, then Portland sends Draymond Green to Boston and bam, they have their point guard in which they did not really have a plan for. Um, I think they was gonna have Derrick White maybe as the point guard, which Derrick White can play the point guard, but Derrick White's natural position to me is a point guard. Um, and it, the team looks a lot different without Draymond Green. And so then bam, they like, here you go, Brad Stevens. And Brad Stevens made the incredible move of bringing Drew Holiday in there. And so, and I said all of that to say, Joel Embiid's question that he knew the answer to, it's absolutely correct. It did give them the championship. And Boston has done the job of putting it together. Gotta get those guys credit, but— Yeah. No, um, he gave it to him. So that's that. Uh, moving on through this game, and I think, you know, this will be the first sweep. Uh, this will be the first sweep since the Warriors.

Yeah. Yes, sir.

2018. Wow. Yeah. I mean, these sweeps don't happen often in the finals. Uh, so I want y'all to know the stuff that I deal with doing this podcast all the time. And I always tell you guys about how Jackson is a Celtics fan and like they'll win a championship and he'll be like, ah, we won a championship as if I really care. We beat them. Don't matter to me. But like the things that he put on these rundowns, like I wish y'all could see 'em sometime. It says, if the Celtics sweep the Mavericks, where does their season land in terms of the best season of all time? The best of all time. Not necessarily the best team of all time, but the best season of all time. And it's just like, what? Like if that actually isn't the like— Yeah. Jackson, I'm sorry, but this is the type of like stuff that be popping up on like First Take. It's like, like, is this the best season? Of course this is not the best season of all time. Of course it's not. Of course it's not. It's probably, but I'm just saying of the 20, in the 21st century, it's probably like top 5. Oh my God. It's just got more first takings. She said, this is crazy. Wow. I mean, 14-game lead over second place in the East is what he got. Like, the East sucks. We know that. Like, who cares? Like, 7-game lead over number 1 in the West. Like, the West is competitive. Like, stop it. By the way, Jackson, I feel like the Warriors teams of old, we, we, we We won one of those seasons by quite a few games. The only problem that we had though is like the San Antonio Spurs just always won games. So even when we create like these crazy seasons, you always just had the Spurs floating around at 62 wins. 62, yeah. Real casual 62. 62 wins on a down year. And so needless to say, No, Jackson. I don't know why this is on the rundown. And then he got the nerves to put in there, currently 15-2 in the postseason. Warriors in 2017 went 67-15 the regular season and 16-1 in the postseason. All right, well, I guess that already makes us better than them, huh, Jackson? Because we went 67-15 in the regular season in the West. That's real. And 16-1 in the postseason, one loss. So, you know, against the great LeBron James, uh, didn't want to get swept. So yeah, Jackson, you answered. I, I don't know why this made the rundown. This is crazy. This is the stuff I have to deal with, you guys. Um, fucking Celtics fan. Gotta be kidding me. Anyway, uh, moving on. Um, because my heart is hurting. Uh, rest in peace to great Jerry West, uh, passed away today at the age of 86. Um, worked in the NBA, has been in the NBA, played in the NBA, coach, executive since 1960, which is 30 years prior to me being born. Um, one-time NBA champion as a player, 8-time NBA champion as an executive, uh, 1969 Finals MVP, the only MVP of a series that they, that the losing team, the MVP came from the losing team in the series, uh, which, you know, you, this man had to be cooking. Uh, 10-time All-NBA First Team, 14-time All-Star. Draymond Green famously said he would quit his job as a consultant for the Warriors if they traded Klay for Kevin Love. I mean, I can definitely believe that 'cause Logo is intense, but I must say I don't remember that being said. But like, Logo is, that's Logo. Like, so I can 100% believe that. One of the most clutch players ever was a pioneer of the sport. And I had the opportunity to know him personally. And he was such an incredible person, incredible man. And I think, you know, what I appreciated about him most It's like, you getting the truth whether you like it or not. Like, you getting the truth. And he always, like, I think, you know, he was a big supporter of me and I've always been appreciative of that. And yet he was also extremely critical of me.

Mm-hmm.

And he'd voice that support to others, and he'd be critical of me to others. And he voiced that support to me, and he'd be critical of me to me. And, um, I always appreciated it because, A, number one, to have a conversation with the logo, like, you know, to ever even have that conversation was always special to me. Like, that's the guy we grew up like. Yeah. That's the logo. Like, it's self-explanatory. Like, we all see it. Like, we all know the badge. Like, that's the logo. Like, and so number one, just to have a conversation. But number two, to be willing to support me, to coach me up in a sense, to give me advice, to stand up for me. I will always— Thank you. And to give his love to me, I'll always be appreciative of that. I mean, he was, you know, to have him around the Warriors organization, the time that we had him, like you could feel his voice, you could always feel his presence. Like his presence in that organization was huge. You know, his tutelage, Like anytime you can have one of the best ever around, like the things that you just pick up, the knowledge that you pick up, the weight that his voice carried, I think it was a huge help to everybody. Like it was, it was one of the reasons that we had the success that we had. Obviously, you know, Bob, being as great as Bob was and, you know, our ownership group, like, but having Logo around, uh, was huge because you just, you get all that expertise and from evaluating talent, from a draft process, excuse me, from a draft perspective, um, free agent perspective, building a team perspective, like to, to just have that type of knowledge around was huge. Mm-hmm. And, you know, to have his demeanor around, like he took no shit from anybody. And he'd tell you in a heartbeat like, "Oh, y'all some idiots. Like you guys don't know, okay?" And he just keeps saying, "Okay." And like someone that holds you responsible the way he did, Like, you can't replace those people in your life. Like, those people, they're invaluable. And so I am extremely, uh, appreciative of my relationship with Logo, the times we've shared, um, sharing one of your sons with me. Johnny, uh, was a great, great, great friend of mine.

Mm-hmm.

You know, me and Johnny have been with the Warriors for about the same amount of time. We've grown up in our professional lives in that organization together. And I know, hey, how much Johnny hurts, and Ryan, Miss Karen, send my love to them, as I know them extremely well personally. And then obviously, uh, to the other fellas, um, I send my love to all of them, uh, but Johnny in particular, because like I said, we've been through, uh, some incredibly, incredibly high ups together and some incredibly low lows together. And, you know, throughout all of that, the relationship I won't say it's never wavered because it has, it's wavered one way and that's to continue to grow. No matter what the situation was, to have someone like Johnny in an organization like these organizations, these are, this is some of the top, businesses in the world. Like, these organizations can be tricky to navigate. And to have someone like Johnny, who's understood it from, uh, childhood and growing up in it, as a friend to help you understand it. And, you know, to always keep it professional and know, like, I have a job to do, but there are some things that I can help you navigate just as a friend. Um, Yeah. 'cause I've seen X, Y, and Z for so long. And you know, I had the opportunity to play in arguably the best organization in the NBA. So it's not anything to navigate from the standpoint of like, oh, you're navigating your way through bullshit because that's not the organization I've been in. But how to grow, you know, how to grow and remain true to yourself. You know, uh, how to navigate in certain conversations with certain people that you may need to have a conversation with, uh, how to approach different things. Like, has always been that one of those people that I could turn to and speak to. And because of his expertise, although right around the same age, um, because of his expertise, because of his experience around it, can give you a great answer from front office executive's perspective through the lens of a friend, like, it's just been incredible to me. And to see him go, like, I know how close that bond was. And to see Johnny go through what he's going through, it breaks my heart. Because Logo was the best. And like, if you ever had an opportunity to interact with him, like he left you with something. Like when you finish in your interaction, you left with something more than you came with. And, uh, not every day do you meet special people like that. Uh, so this has been a, a rough, rough few weeks in the NBA, losing, uh, some of our legends. Um, you know, there's, there's kind of always been like this.

Mm-hmm.

Not always, but like at times, you know, you could feel like, ah man, some of the older guys don't support us the way like we would want them to support us, like that you would hope they support us. You can sometimes feel like that, and it never felt that way with the Loco. Like I said, he'd be extremely critical of you, but it came from a place of like wanting you to do better. I came from a place of caring. And so just to have that, those experiences with him that I was able to have, honored. And I cherished him because I left with something better than I arrived with. And then, you know, to Johnny, Ryan, Ms. Karen, Um, like I said, who I know extremely well personally, like I said, my love. Um, it's a tough day. And you know, I think some— something that a lot of us don't think about when these things happen is like, there's one side of like seeing the outpour of love and support and feeling that and being thankful for that. There's another side of that of like, it's in your face every day and like having to live and hold onto that every day, even in moments where your day may move forward and you're not thinking about it. Like you can quickly be reminded of it because it's all over social media because you ride around and you see a mural. And so as much as you appreciate that outpour of love, it can very much so be a burden. And, you know, it obviously is a gift and a curse that comes with the territory. But I just send my love to them because they'll continue to have to live that. And I'll continue to send my love and my well wishes to the family. But for everybody else out there, like, continue to send your love in a time of need.

Thank you.

And I don't just mean that obviously to Logo's family and, you know, in this instance, like when you got people that go through stuff, like, you know, we tend to show our love and then forget and move on with our lives and like they keep on going through that. So continue to send your love. I'll continue to send my love. RIP to the great Jerry West, the Logo. Man, he'll be missed. And I'll definitely miss him. So that's a wrap from this episode of the Draymond Green Show. I appreciate you tuning in this episode. We will have another episode of Champs Only on Friday with D Fish, Derek Fisher. So make sure you subscribe. Think that'll be our last Champs Only episode of this year. Till next time, that's a wrap. Peace.