In this episode of the Draymond Green Show, Draymond Green and former WNBA star Candace Parker explore how championships shape player legacies and the often‑overlooked role of luck and timing in winning titles. They discuss great players who never won a ring—Damian Lillard, James Harden, Karl Malone, John Stockton, Charles Barkley—and argue that only champions truly understand the difficulty of securing a championship. The conversation shifts to how modern player movement (e.g., Kevin Durant, LeBron James) changes the way fans and analysts evaluate careers, with Parker likening her own move to the Aces to LeBron’s return to the Lakers rather than Durant’s switch to the Warriors. Parker explains her motivations: family proximity, business opportunities, and the desire for a dedicated practice facility—a luxury she never had in her 16‑year WNBA career. She advocates for better WNBA infrastructure, including personal lockers and exclusive training spaces, positioning herself as a future “female Magic Johnson” who will elevate women’s sports in tech and investment. Throughout, both guests emphasize the champion’s mindset of recognizing the right moment to make a play, underscoring that such intuition is honed only through winning. The episode concludes with Draymond’s usual call‑to‑action for viewers to subscribe.
Chapters
The more that I've won and like you just said how hard it is.
Yep.
I feel like I have a softer spot for guys that hasn't. For instance, Damian Lillard.
Yeah.
Like James Harden. You think of these guys who's had these incredible careers and haven't won a championship. And like I used to talk a lot, I used to always, and like I still will, like Charles Barkley, like never won a championship, Chuck. Like I still, I'm still gonna talk about him. But there's also another side of me that's like, like James Harden, does James Harden win a championship if he don't run up against us every year in the conference finals?
Like you— I mean, would Karl Malone have won? Karl Malone would've— won a championship or John Stockton could've won a championship if MJ wasn't, or Dominique Wilkins when Atlanta—
Exactly.
Talk about all these guys. Yeah.
But then these guys end up being discredited like for what they done in their careers because they didn't win a championship. But actually only you and I, and obviously other champ knows how hard it really is and all of the things that has to go right in order for it to happen. You gotta be like, you have to be healthy at the right time. You gotta be clicking at the right time. You gotta get a little lucky.
Like— But people underestimate and undervalue the luck element.
Absolutely.
Because you know I'm a Golden State fan. Like, it's Layla's favorite team. No, I am. I've told you this.
Absolutely.
Like, if you look back on if everything would've gone perfect, right? Y'all could have 6 or 7 championships.
Absolutely.
Right? Now, if everything would've went wrong, y'all maybe only have 1 or 2.
Yeah.
Like, we look at these plays as,— and I've always said this, we allow individual plays to determine somebody's entire career. Like, really, if Houston Rockets wouldn't have missed 27 straight 3s— and it's— listen, y'all defense is great, but some of them things was wide open. Like, wide open.
Yeah. At least 10 of them were wide open.
Or what if Karl Malone would've put the ball up like this and Jordan would've come— wouldn't have come baseline and knocked it outta his hand? Like, there's so many elements of stuff. So I believe that there's so much luck, but I also think you make your luck.
Yeah.
And like to watch y'all know, 'cause there's a champion's mentality of knowing when that play is. Like knowing when you have to make a play.
That's true.
You know?
That's true.
And you can only know that when you've won. You cannot, you can try to know it, You can try to feel it. But up until you win, you're guessing. You're guessing when it's time. Like, is it time now? OK, no. Is it time now? You know what I mean?
Absolutely.
And so I feel like watching you guys and watching y'all last year, like, it really was you knew when it was time.
Mm-hmm.
So I think there's luck.
But I also think, you know, there's that mentality and that winner So do you think like, actually as of late Dame has been really outspoken about it.
Yep.
Do you think the flack that guys catch or not even necessarily the flack, but essentially how guys are dropped down the rankings because of not winning championship, do you think that's justified?
I think in the past NBA, yes. The modern NBA, probably not. Because I think there's so much switching teams and going places that then you're going to have to start not validating championships as well. Because do you remember when the Lakers did it? It was like Karl Malone went to the Lakers and—
Yep.
Gary Payton.
Gary Payton.
Yeah, and they went to the Lakers. And it was just kind of like, if they win a championship this year, they haven't won one before. And I think this is what I'm facing now. Like, there's so many people that are calling me KD, and you know, you just switching teams. And I'm like, listen, at me. I've won championships, whatever, however you want it, I'll give it to you. We've won it the hard, hard, hard way. I've gone back home and won a championship. And now I'm deciding that, you know what? I don't wanna play 40 minutes. I wanna do everything. I don't wanna, I don't, I'm cool winning near my family, picking me off the court, playing for a dope organization in a dope practice facility with stuff that I've never had in my career. Call me what you want, but don't me with that. And so I think, We have different ways of validating and not validating players. Do I think Charles Barkley is a fricking beast during his— Yes. Like Chuck could ball.
Absolutely.
And he played during an era that was playing against, I mean, so, But I think now it's a little bit because so many guys are changing teams. So it's like, what is Dame gonna do? Because you are kind of wasting a little bit of years. And I get it. Like you wanna stay loyal and there's a lot of people that wanna start and finish in the same place. And I think that that's admirable. But you also have to look at the big scheme of things if you care about where you are on the list.
So, so, so are you saying KD coming to the Warriors and you going to the, to the Aces are two totally different things.
I think it's two totally different things. I've won two championships.
So I think it's— So you're saying what you did is more LeBron than KD, essentially? LeBron went back home, won championships.
I'll be honest, yes. I think LeBron moved to the Lakers from, for, yes, career-wise, but also business-wise.
Yeah, absolutely.
He's talking about wanting to be a billionaire. Well, guess what? I want to be a female Magic Johnson. I want to be a businesswoman, and I want to take female sports and female athletes and have them looked at differently in tech, in investment, in just business in general. And so for me, I think it was family, it was business, and it was basketball. And it's like, and I think that that was the main priority. Draymond, I have not had a locker in my entire career. I've been in the WNBA for 16 years and I have not had a locker where it has my name on it and I can leave my shit and then come back and know my shit gonna be there. I have not had that.
Really?
That's my own that you walk into and this is your own area. Nobody else. There's no old people walking through. There's no— and it's not to say this is a bad thing, but I'm saying like, I fought so hard to like bring the WNBA along that I've never had a practice facility where I can just go get shots up at night. We've always shared a practice facility.
Really?
Yes. And so my thing is, is I deserve that, right?
Absolutely.
I deserve that. I've worked my ass off. And have been a part of growing the WNBA. And so for, I don't wanna fight, I don't want to, I want my last couple years, my last, if this is it, I want this to be something that I look back on and I'm like, man, like I had that, you know? Like I've seen progress. This is where we started and this is where we're at right now.
What's up everybody? It's Draymond Green. Make sure you subscribe to The Volume's YouTube channel below so you don't miss any more of this great content going forward.
