Dray on the "magnitude" of LeBron James playing at the Drew League | Draymond Green Show

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. What's up everybody? Welcome back to the Draymond Green Show. Excited to be back. I told you all guests would be back and we opening it back up with a bang. We got the underground king, the sixth man himself, Lou Will joining the show today. Been around for a long time, 17 years in this thing. That equals a lot of stories. So we gonna get into them. But before we do, just wanna catch you up on a little bit of stuff that I've had going on, which is number one, and most importantly, the Drew League. So I had never been to the Drew League before, which is obviously I've never played, but I had never been at all. And King James himself was playing. My brother Deebo was playing. So I'm like, you know what? I'm about to pop out. I'm gonna go check out the Drew and see what's happening. When I tell you it was the most incredible environment I've been in in a long time, excluding the NBA Finals. What? The most incredible environment. I mean, the energy in there was insane. The roof was leaking, and no, it was not leaking because the roof actually had a leak. It was leaking because there were probably way too many people in there. It was hot, air conditioning on to try to keep it cool. Then you got the heat mixing with that, and you're just getting like these, these drips down from the roof, and they kept having to like wipe the floor. That's the little stuff. But let's talk about like— Yeah. Bron going to play in the Drew League, like, that's monumental. Like, LeBron James does not have to go play in the Drew League. That's insane. He's in year 20, by the way, still going to play in the Drew League. I thought that was absolutely incredible. And, you know, to watch the intensity level, like, you have to understand the dynamic in things like that happening. Okay, so it's LeBron James, which everyone wants their opportunity to say, I did X to LeBron James. I scored on LeBron, I got a stop, I stripped him, I blocked his shot. I, and most importantly, I beat him. The game was actually pretty close. It was really close. The opposing team was up majority of the game. And, you know, people start texting me like, yo, I didn't realize, I didn't realize when I was at the game that the game was playing on the NBA app, which also shows you the power of LeBron James. But people start texting me like, yo, are they gonna win this game? I'm like, absolutely. Hennessy celebrates those who never stop, never settle in their never-ending pursuit of greatness. Maurice Ashley lives his passion. An inspiring story of intellect and brilliance, his ability to push the potential of his own mind to new levels of greatness is universally inspiring. In the world of the mind, there are no limits. Hennessy. Never stop. Never settle. If you want to learn more about Maurice Ashley, visit www.hennessy.com. 21+. Please drink responsibly. Why do you think they're gonna win this game? Because LeBron James and DeMar DeRozan is on that team. And at any moment they're going to shut these guys' water off. Like, yeah, they hitting shots right now. And like, you know, they getting to the cup and everything look good right now. But my big brother, Mateen Cleese, has a saying, "A pro is a pro and a Joe is a Joe." And he always say that. And the reality is, is like, Yeah, them guys are good. They good basketball players. They're, you know, some of the guys play overseas, you know, guys were high-level college players, but a pro is a pro and a Joe is a Joe. And I knew due to that, that at some point they're going to shut their water off and they're not going to be able to score. And at some point they're not going to be able to stop them from scoring. And Just as I thought. I mean, it may have been 10 straight possessions where the opposing team didn't score. I think they were called BPE or something like that. It may have been 10 straight possessions that they didn't score a bucket. They had the tall kid, the tall white kid, he was playing well the whole game, would not miss a free throw. Got down the stretch, couldn't buy a bucket. And I don't just mean any bucket. He kept missing free throws down the stretch. Like the last 6 minutes of the game, once that pressure turned up, all of a sudden he couldn't make a free throw anymore. And I knew that that's what would happen, but less about the actual game itself, because at the end of the day, LeBron and DeMar, and they had the kid Boogie, who went to USC, I think, then Memphis or whatever. Memphis. It was, they're gonna win. Like they're supposed to be better than them. Like, all right, so I get that. So let's stop discussing the actual game, but the atmosphere, you got LeBron James who's leading the Los Angeles Lakers and he's just LeBron James, doesn't need anything else to be said. But leading the Los Angeles Lakers, going to the Drew League in Los Angeles and playing in that league, just allowing the people to touch him. Like that's a big deal. You think of those kids that were watching that, like, it's insane, you know? And then, you know, you get on Twitter and like someone wants to discuss the game, like, and I told y'all, y'all know who I'm talking about, but I'm done mentioning fools' names. But you know, you wanna get on Twitter and like talk about the game and like a shooting percentage. Like, no, let's talk about what? LeBron James' appearance at the Drew League did for these young African American kids that were there. That, and by the way, it's not just African American kids, there were kids of all races there. But when I speak of African American kids, because for us growing up in the neighborhood, like you think LeBron James is a surreal thing because there's no way for you to touch LeBron James. You just see him on a basketball court. You see him on your TV screen, on an Instagram picture, video, whatever. There's no way for you to touch LeBron James. Like there were so many kids there that could say, "Wow, I got that close to LeBron James." Like I was able to watch LeBron James and DeMar DeRozan play basketball. There were kids there that would never have an opportunity to attend an NBA game. And yet you got— Yeah. Idiots talking about a shooting percentage. Like, let's talk about what that did for the people that was in that gym and the magnitude of that moment. Let's talk about that instead of again trying to always derail the Black man. At some point it's got to stop. And so, we're not going to discuss how incredible it is for a guy in his 20th season, going into his 20th season, arguably the greatest player of all time, going to play basketball at the Drew League in front of people. And by the way, for free. Now, the Drew League can cost $10, it could cost $20 to get in. I'm not sure if it costs that or if it's free, but he's playing for free. He's not— He's not going to the Smileys and saying, I need a percentage of the door because I'm playing in the league. So he's doing that for free. He's doing that because he wants to do that. But we're not going to talk about that in the magnitude that it had. We're going to try to find something about the game to try to lessen this man's impact. At some point, it's got to stop. At some point, you can't be willing to listen to that. 'Cause it's disgusting. And it is that exact, that very thing that's ruining our world. It's just in basketball terms right here. But it's that attitude, it's that mindset that continues to derail the world we live in. So I am here to say, as someone who attended the game and didn't find the nearest stat sheet, which by the way, that's how these people do when they're analyzing our games. They find the nearest stat sheet they can find, look at the stat sheet and say, oh, look at that. Ah, such, such, such, such did this. Can't evaluate a game of basketball to save their lives. But what they can do is look at a stat sheet and get it all wrong. Get at a— look at a stat sheet and missed the entire point. At some point, you're not going to be able to build your career and continue to try to stay relevant off Durell and the Black man. It's just not going to work. So I want to put this out there for those of you that didn't attend, that couldn't attend. It was one of the most incredible basketball games that I've ever been to. And it was less about the actual game being played. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] 'Cause I've been to some incredible basketball games. In fact, I've been a part of some incredible basketball games. But the magnet, like if you were in there, you just felt it. It was different. It was big. I mean, they spent, after halftime, they spent 5 minutes telling people back up off the baseline. So we, or we not starting the game. And then they realized, well, where are those people backing up to? So unless you're gonna clear this whole thing out, They have nowhere to back and they just started the game. And like I said, just the impact that it had and like you just knew when you walked in, like that environment was different. So kudos to Bron for going out there and letting the people touch you. I thought that was absolutely incredible. And I hope everybody there and those that weren't there can appreciate what happened because it was absolutely amazing. DeAndre Aydin. Draymond Green signs his extension finally. Feel like we've been waiting on that for a while, um, a year it seems. And you know, he signed the offer sheet for— with the Indiana Pacers. For those of you that don't understand what just happened with DeAndre Ayton, let me explain to you. So DeAndre Ayton was a restricted free agent. You have restricted free agents and you have unrestricted free agents. For a first round pick in the NBA draft, you get 2 guaranteed years. Now that doesn't mean you're gonna be on the roster spot for 2 years. That means you get 2 guaranteed years of salary as if you're on the roster spot. You then have 2 team options. And what that is, is by a certain date, that team has to say, okay, we're picking up the option. And then that gives you one more year on the contract. So for first round picks, you get two guaranteed years and then you have two player options. After that fourth year, you are a restricted free agent. What that means is you can go out and you, if you don't get an extension done with your team, you can then, and you're now restricted free agent, you can then go out and you can get an offer sheet from any other team in the NBA. Mm-hmm. Now, what that means is that team says, okay, we're offering DeAndre Ayton 4 years, $133 million. DeAndre Ayton then goes and signs that offer sheet. Once he's done signing that offer sheet and it's submitted to the NBA, the Phoenix Suns now have 48 hours to match that offer sheet or else DeAndre Ayton walks. For nothing to, and he walks for nothing to the Indiana Pacers. Why that sucks is, and why you don't see it happen often is, DeAndre Ayton was the number 1 draft pick. For a team to draft him with the number 1 pick and then to let him walk for nothing, you, it's hard to recover from that. 'Cause when are you gonna get the number 1 pick again? Yeah. Now you gotta try to get free agents. And so it's very hard to recover from that. So all along I knew Phoenix is 100% bringing him back. Whether he gets an offer sheet or whether he ends up not getting the offer sheet that he wants and just have to negotiate directly with Phoenix. Phoenix is definitely bringing him back because you just can't let the number 1 pick walk for nothing after 4 years. Unless of course they're just not good. And even then you're trying to trade and see if you can at least get a second round pick for him. So DeAndre Ayton signed his offer sheet with the Indiana Pacers. And where I thought it got very interesting was I think the Phoenix Suns may have matched that offer sheet in like 2, 3 hours. Like they didn't wait around, they didn't mess around. And I thought that was very big of James Jones and the Phoenix Suns to sign that right away. And here's why. DeAndre Ayton, who is the number 1 pick, who wasn't able to reach an extension, who then wasn't, was not able to get the deal that he wanted from Phoenix, had to go out and restricted free agency, get an offer sheet, and then take it back to Phoenix. He could feel a way. He could be upset, he could be pissed off. And that's never good for anyone if he's coming back to that situation because now he feels a way about this person, that person, and then does it really work? What I thought Phoenix matching that right away did was show DeAndre Ayton how important he was to them. Like, all right, you got your offer sheet. We not about to mess around. We not waiting 2 more days. Done. You got it. Match. Over. And I thought that said a lot to him. And I thought that was a great move by James Jones, who I have a bunch of respect for as a general manager. I think he's done an incredible job in building that thing that they have going in Phoenix. And I thought that that was another splendid move by James Jones. So credit James Jones for how he handled that. Congratulations, DeAndre Ayton, on getting his money. Thank you. Like I've said before, I'll say it again, I always wanna see guys get their money. And so it's absolutely incredible for him. You're talking generational wealth, kid from the Bahamas. You know, we all as Americans, we see the Bahamas and we're like, "Oh man, it's incredible." Like we go there for vacation. But I got a younger brother from the Bahamas, Tom Tom, and it ain't all peaches and cream. You know, they grow up rough. Yeah. In some parts of the Bahamas. And so you talking to a guy who can go, who's making money, and he has been since the beginning, by the way, as the number 1 pick, but who is making generational money and can continue to change his life, change his immediate family life, and also change families' lives back in the Bahamas. So absolutely incredible for DeAndre Ayton. I take my hat off to him. Job well done. Congratulations. Thank you. Lastly, before we, before we get into the interview with the great Lou Will, the Jazz are now saying that they are open to trading Donovan Mitchell. Kind of boring news because you still wanna see the trade go down before you get all excited about it. But exciting news because Donovan Mitchell is a young stud in this league and possibly on the move now. That can shake up some things because you think of the team that he may get added to. That can get somebody over the hump, adding a Donovan Mitchell. So now obviously depends on what team he goes to. You can also go to some teams that you can help get further under the hump because they just stink already. Now he'll obviously make 'em better because he's that good. But some of these teams' rosters just ain't that great. So that is exciting. Yeah. We'll see what happens if he'll actually get traded or not, where he'll get traded. But I'm telling you, trading a Donovan Mitchell, trading a Kevin Durant, that's not something you wake up tomorrow and you like, boop, that's done. Those things take a while when you're trading that level of talent because you wanna hear everything. You wanna make sure you get the absolute most you can get for a level of talent like those guys. And so we'll see what happens with that. Keep your eyes open for it. But I definitely think it's interesting that they went from, we're not trading anybody, to trading Rudy Gobert, to, all right, we're staying put and we're gonna build around Donovan, to now being open to trading Donovan. I thought that was a very interesting thing that has happened over the course of the last few days in the NBA. So definitely gotta keep an eye out on that. See what happens. As like I said, that can tilt the NBA one way or another. So we'll see. Be very interesting. And I'm also very interested in seeing how long it goes and if it'll actually happen. We'll see. But with that said, definitely time to get into the interview. We are back with the interviews. It's been 2 and a half months since you've heard someone else's voice on a Draymond Green Show other than myself and a little bit of Jackson, you know, when Jackson hop in and was talking about them Celtics. Yeah. Which we all enjoy now and enjoy, yeah. But let's get straight into it. Lou Will, my brother, the GOAT, 6-man, the underground legend, Lou Will, what's happening, brother? Welcome to the show. Thank you.