Draymond Green reacts to Hawks No. 1 pick Zaccharie Risacher calling himself a "regular dude" after five games. Green says top picks must exude confidence and refuse to be ordinary, pointing to how elite players like Blake Griffin and LaMarcus Aldridge earned respect by directly competing with established stars.
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Hey, speaking of athletes, we moving— let's move around this league a little bit. We must have a conversation about the number 1 pick in the 2024 draft. Zach Risacher talks about his situation during training camp, and he says, and I quote, back in France, I was super athletic. And now I'm just a regular dude.
Uh-oh.
If you are the latter, how alarming is that statement?
Uh-oh.
This man already think he regular. He's the number one pick.
Uh-oh.
5 games in, he said, I'm just a regular dude. How alarming is that?
No, that is, ring the alarm, bro. Sound the sirens. That is, that's a major alarm. Red alert.
Red flag.
What?
Are you kidding me, bro? Even if you believe that, brother Locke.
You cannot say that, bro.
Anthony Richardson, if you are tired and you took yourself out because you tired, Say, "I felt tight right here." Yeah, yeah.
Like, I felt, yeah, a little knickknack or something.
What are you doing? If you believe that lie, because that to me just shows a level of confidence that you don't have. A level of dog that you don't have.
You ain't gonna persevere out of it.
Exactly. So you gonna be a regular dude. And quite frankly, if I'm being honest with you, Being a regular dude as the number one pick in the NBA ain't okay. You can't be regular. Nobody gonna let you be regular. So my man, you better figure out how to stand out and you better do it fast.
Yeah, you know, it's just, bro, it's just a testament to like, you see these kids and they playing against competition and the competition that they play against may be a little older, less athletic, And so, you know, when you young, you feel like, man, I'm, you know, I'm a superhero. And then when you get to that level, right? You know, it's people like Jonathan Kuminga, you know what I mean?
Yep.
People like my boy Sharp, Shaden Sharp, you know what I mean? You looking at dudes like, and then you got Jalen Johnson on your team.
Yep. So you like, damn.
Freak out. Yeah, you like, damn. But it shouldn't be about just your athletic, your athleticism. And you should never say you regular.
Yes.
You never wanna be regular, bro. You didn't come here regular. You wasn't the number. If you figured out that you was regular, like, then you should say, hey man, I wanna reset my contract. You know what I mean?
And send me back to France.
And send me back to France, bro. We can't be doing no regular shit. What is regular?
I'm a regular dude.
What is regular? That don't even make sense, right? I ain't never met— really, I ain't never met an NBA dude that thought that he was a regular dude. Even the dudes who don't play, like, they don't think they— like, it's— your confidence is everything, bro. Regular, regular don't exist.
Regular. Somebody call me regular, I take such a fist.
Yeah, I be trying to whoop they ass.
And this man said, I'm just a regular dude over here.
Or maybe he meant it in a different way. I don't know.
No, he meant exactly what he said.
That's true.
And for all these Twitter fingers out here, you see how different the NBA is now. So shut up. That's what y'all need to do. Shut up.
Shut the hell up.
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I think for me it was Jason Kidd. You know, you had Jason Kidd, you had Marbury, You got Steve Nash, Gary Payton when I first got in. And then the scary thing was everybody else. Rod Strickland, Nick Van Exel, Sam Cassell. You know what I mean? And then dudes in my class, Andre Miller. You know what I mean? But it was really like Gary Payton, Jason Kidd was like, he was that dude. You know what I mean? Iverson, Mulberry, they were like the guards in the East. You know, when I was coming up. And so it was like, you have to go, you have to go and make your name, you know, against those dudes. So that was kind of like, you know, when I came into the league, that was my target. It was like, man, if I can get Jason Kidd respect, you know, and he gonna have to pay attention to me, like, you know, I know I'm here, you know what I'm saying?
Yeah. That part, that part. No, I definitely feel that, man.
And so you felt like it was Blake for you and LaMarcus Aldridge?
100%. Like those were the two power fours that everybody was talking about was the best. And obviously you then you had like Z-Bo.
Yeah.
You know, when I came in the league, Timmy D was still in the league. He was aging, you know, he had a couple more years left. Dirk was still going, but you know, they were on their back nine, you know what I'm saying? So the two younger guys that, everybody was talking about was Blake and LaMarcus. And they was in our, Blake's in our division, LaMarcus in our conference. We playing those guys, you know, 4 times a year, every time we play them. And so at that time, you know, I got the moniker that I'm too small on me. You know, I got that tag on me that I'm too small. So every time I see these guys, I'm locked in, I'm biting my bottom lip. I'm trying to go at these boys.
Right.
And that's, you know, You know, that's how ultimately you make your name in this league. You gotta go at the guys that's the ones.
Absolutely. I mean, you wanna be able to walk in the room and people know who you are and gain that respect.
1000%.
And it's almost better for dudes to like not really like you.
You know what I'm saying? Exactly.
I see them ones, you know, it's like—
Exactly.
You walk in the room and they don't really like you and you know why, it's like, 'Cause like, dog, you ain't do what you was supposed to, you know, when we locked up, right? Our matchup, like I won the matchup, you know what I'm saying?
Exactly.
So that's—
That was my mindset, bro. When I came in, I came in talking crazy to everybody. I'm talking crazy to Bron, I'm talking crazy to KD. And like Russ, and ultimately see KD and Russ, they used to hate it, man. And they'll go at you crazy and talk bad to you. And ultimately, You know, at first they start talking bad, like, who are you? You this, you that. And then you start to gain their respect. And I remember I was on the USA Select Team and the respect that KD and Russ showed me walking, I was like, ah, A, I felt good. You know what I'm saying?
Yeah.
But B, it gave me confidence. Like, oh, they noticed me, they respect me.
Right.
They're speaking to me. Like, you want that, you want that, that validation from the guys that, you know, the guys. And like, when they was giving me that validation, that's what made me feel like, yo, I could, I could keep taking this next step because these guys are starting to respect me.
