In this YouTube video, Warriors forward Draymond Green reflects on the emotional fallout after ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith publicly questioned Steph Curry's leadership. Green describes how the criticism hurt him, feeling that Curry was unfairly targeted despite his exemplary conduct. He issues a sincere, public apology to Curry, thanking him for personal support during Green's suspension. Green also acknowledges the outpouring of encouragement from teammates and close friends—including Chris Paul (CP), LeBron James, Ish Smith, and his agent Rich—highlighting the importance of their solidarity. He recounts the challenges of his suspension, the difficulty of explaining his absence to his children, and the process of returning to basketball after a ten‑day break. Green frames this episode as a turning point in his life and career, emphasizing ongoing personal growth, a commitment to accountability, and a desire to let others see his evolution. A brief DraftKings advertisement is interspersed but is unrelated to the core narrative.
Chapters
One thing throughout this process that really hurt me, I turned on the TV screen and someone, Stephen A. was like, "Steph is a bad leader." What about Steph Curry? You are the leader. If this were a teammate of LeBron James, we'd be asking LeBron, "What you gonna do about it?" Because Draymond did X. And it pissed me off, but it crushed me. It crushed me because how is Steph enduring being a bad leader? Like this guy doesn't give us anything to tear him down about. This guy does everything the right way. And yet he's being tore down because my actions crushed me. That was a tough one. That was a tough blow to deal with.
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And because he got crushed publicly for that, I'm gonna apologize publicly. I sincerely apologize to Steph for my actions. 'Cause that was a tough pill to swallow. Very thankful for Steph. As I've been out on this time, talk every day, every other day, just checking in. He's like, "Yo, I'm gonna be right here with you through this." Imma help you through this. And he's been very much so that all my teammates have reached out at different points too. Like, yo, I'm just checking on you. How you doing? I'm thankful for those guys. Yeah. CP, who you all know, we had our thing as we've infamously talked about. Checking in every day, every other day. Thankful for those guys. Bron. Checking in. Yo, just want you to know we with you. We love you, Champ. Like, we riding with you. Do whatever you gotta do. Know that we with you. Time is up. I told you all about putting my phone away. And so by the time I'll get to my phone, it's 1:30, 2 o'clock. And me and Ish tried catching up for 10 days and couldn't. And then we finally got on the phone and we talked for an hour. And he's been texting me every day since, still. And man, you don't get people like that in your corner, especially not no college coach. And I know I've said this before, you don't get people like that.
Yeah.
I'm so thankful to have those people in my life and lucky to have those types of people in my corner. If you even just sent the text, like I could, I didn't even, I didn't, I still haven't gotten a chance to respond to all the texts because there were so many. But I thank you because it's special and it doesn't go unnoticed. And it's like when the world is flipping on you, to know that those that's really in your corner are still standing there, I can't thank all of you enough. For the first few games of my suspension, I'd hide from my kids to watch the game because that's a tough conversation to have. And I remember the first game that I watched with them or that they saw me watching, they were like, So confused, like, "Daddy, why you not?" I'm like, "Oh, you know, like, it's a tough conversation to have." But it's one that I had to have. And I grew through it. I've grown because of it. But that was tough. I said I'd walk you through this journey. I didn't touch a basketball for a week. 10 days, just got away from everything. And I'm like, you know what, let me get back on the court, let me start back working out. And I did that and I've been doing that. And I've had calls with Rich, my agent, the league office. The Warriors organization on those calls. That's been the process. And the process don't end today or tomorrow or the next day because it's something that I've decided. Mm-hmm. You have turning points in life. You have turning points in careers. And I've decided for this to be a turning point for me. And so it's not something that ends today because if it's a turning point, you must keep going or you end up back there. And so I look forward to continuing to grow as a person. One of the reasons I consider quitting basketball is I'm like, the worst of me come out on the basketball court. Like the worst of me don't come out in my life. If you talk to anybody who's around me, I hardly talk. I know there's this common misconception like, Draymond's super outgoing. Draymond always has something to say. Draymond don't talk if he not comfortable. I'll sit there and not say a word. And I'm not gonna sit here and say, oh, I'm changing this, I'm changing that. I'm growing. And I think it's time that I allow you to see the growth. Mm-hmm.
