Draymond Green & Baron Davis REACT to LeBron James saying "Ring culture" is ruining the NBA

Draymond Green recently said ring culture has hurt the game. It's basically that judging greatness only by championships disrespects legends like Iverson and Barkley. Do you agree with that?

I definitely agree with him. You know, I think that, you know, our narrative has, and our stories have been in the hands of, you know, media or reporters, and it's like their opinion. Right? And not to disrespect, you know, them and the game because they play a big part of the game, but the stories should be told from the players themselves, right? The perspective of who they are and what we mean. And so when you think about ring culture, it's, you know, it's becoming, you know, something that's kind of like corporatizing or selling the conversation about really what this game is about. It's, you know, you as a kid play basketball to fit in on a team, right? And develop a game and a style that ultimately evolves into, you know, Draymond Green, Hall of Fame, right? So your accolades is one thing, but it's more so like, your story, your journey, right? What you did, how you get there, how you overcame, right? And so as overachievers, right, people who don't necessarily understand that can paint whatever picture that they want to paint for you in your time in the league. So, you know, for me, I think when you just talk about dudes who get rings, or you just say like, oh, these dudes who these dudes who got rings are the only ones capable of running teams and things like that, then you really mess up the culture because as you know, not everybody on the team is qualified and capable. And if they weren't— were not— some of them, if they were not on that team, right, they are replaceable. And, and then it limits the capacity for new rings and new people Right, we have so many great basketball players, great basketball minds in this game that they get underserved, right? Underappreciated. Their stories are undertold. Their highlights are, you know, undersubscribed to, right?

Mm-hmm.

So like that ring culture, it is, it's kind of like a disease because Depending on who you are, you can just jump out there and use your decorations and your merit, you know, as something for media or fans to be like, oh, this dude is, you know, what a— I'm not saying you're not an expert because we all experts, but like, you can paint whatever narrative you want. And that's what I don't like.

I think, I think winning culture took a big turn and came into play in large part due to the success of the Golden State Warriors.

I agree.

What I would say about what Bron said is this. I think ultimately what Bron was saying is, what I took away from it is you get guys like a Stephen A. Here's what I took away from it verbatim. To me, it felt like Stephen A is someone who talks a lot about rings and you don't know what it takes to win a ring because you've never won a ring and you've never gone through it. And you don't understand because you've never gone through it that sometimes when you get an opportunity to win and you don't kick that door down, it can change everything. Because you don't know how hard it is because you've never gone through it, then you start using it to lessen the, the greatness of some of the greats. And is having a ring important? Of course. Like, does it add to legacy? Does it stamp legacies? Absolutely. Not gonna sit here and act like having rings or a ring don't matter. It does matter. Mm-hmm. But it doesn't make Barkley less great as he was. It doesn't make Allen Iverson less great than what they were. And I think when people use it, they use it to kind of dim the greatness, dim the light on guys. And that's what I felt like Bron was getting at. Like verbatim, I think, you know, Stephen A and him been having their thing. And to me, as soon as I heard it, I watched it, I was like, That's what I came away with it. It felt like he's talking directly to Stephen A. and those type of guys. And if you've never done it, you don't know how hard it is. So in turn—

You don't even know how hard it is to try and get there, man. There are more great players than great players that won rings.

Yes, 1000%.

Right? So there are more great players haven't won rings and the great players that have won rings.

And like, that's the way we gotta look at it is like, that's what, like I was looking at Magic, right? You know, I was on a little history of the game site and I was going through Magic and I was like, man, Magic have 5.

Mm-hmm.

That means— in an entire decade, right? There were only 5 other winners. Well, Bird had what, 3?

Mm-hmm.

So that leaves 2 for damn near your career, right? You got, you got, you got a shot at being a champion in 2 of the 10 years, every 10 years you play. Mm-hmm.

That's a fact though. That's a fact.

Why?

Like CP and James Harden.

That's wild.

If they don't run into us, they probably do win a championship.

Or at least have a chance.

You know? And so it, when no, sometimes that's just how the cookie crumbles. But that don't mean them guys aren't great. And that don't mean Chris Paul not a winner. Chris Paul is a winner. He just couldn't quite, it's so many things that have to go right for you to win a champ. It's not just like, oh, I played good. Good and we, it's not like objective. Like it's not an object, it's very subjective. There's so many things that have to fall into place for it to happen. And so to just lessen someone's greatness because of it, I think that's wrong. I'm not saying again that having the rings don't matter. It fucking matter. When I walk in a room, I feel great about it.

It's a different energy.

It's a different energy.

Of course. It's a difference. It's a difference.

But that, does not lessen someone else's greatness because all of those things didn't fall in place for them to get the ring. And that's what I took away from it. That's what I felt like Bron was saying.

I hate when they talk about dudes as they get older, right? And as you get older, I didn't get that chance to experience that, but I think as I got older in my career, I would've wanna play for championship teams, right? But I think also like a big thing about the media is that we need to be celebrating these dudes on their way out.

Yeah.

Talking about who they were and they peaked, showing the storyline because obviously, you know, Chris Paul today is definitely not the Chris Paul that I played against, right? And that was like, golly, you know what I mean?

Yo, you wanna watch, you know, you tapping all the way in.

Absolutely.

We gotta understand like, and I would say this happened in the past a lot, we gotta appreciate the evolution.

And it's like a fine wine.

Yeah.

You know, it's like classic hip hop, right?

Like these dudes came into the game as renegade painters, painted they style, and then on they exit, you know, they became more of a, you know, more of like capsulizing they masterpiece in different forms.

That's a fact.

Right? And more so like what they leaving to the game. So I just don't like that 'cause that should be pissing me off because you can talk about, oh, you can like, you know, even Oscar Robertson said Draymond Green just passed the ball to Steph Curry. Like what pissed me off about that is, Like, bro, like, you gotta watch the body of work, homie. You have to watch the body of work, right?

Yep.

Or shut the fuck up, right?

Or, and you don't just look at towards the end of somebody career and say, oh, that is like the way we seen them. No, we gotta paint the picture of like, this is what they evolved into. This is the artist they evolved into. This is the statue. This is why D-Wade get a statue. Right? Like we gotta like start speaking more, you know, in people's like in present day.

Mm-hmm.

And not just making like bold and wild ass statements without doing no research.

'Cause then, you know, I feel your sentiment now.

Mm-hmm.

Right? I feel your sentiment now because we gotta start highlighting the greatness. That's all. 'Cause the media gonna talk, say what the fuck they gonna wanna say about Draymond or Draymond is this or Chris Paul is that. Is that, or LeBron is this, or like we gotta do a KD is this, we gotta do a better job of like speaking on their greatness.

That's a fact. Well, one thing's for certain, just because you were a great basketball player don't make you smart and it don't make you know basketball. So, you know, those two things can be mutually exclusive. And I think in that case it was very mutually exclusive. So that's my little single shot. That's my little single shot for the day. Just because you were a great basketball player, I see this all the time. I see people say stuff and I'll be like, somebody gonna listen to that because they like, oh, that person was a great basketball player, they know. Listen, a lot of them be dumb too. And that was just a dumb statement in the show colors. And I'll leave that at that, you know? So.

And then to bring it full circle, people with rings are the same, in the same category. So you gotta just respect.

Great basketball, Miles.

And big news, Desmond Bane gets traded.

Wait, talk about BD. I wanna move on to that too, but I got something for you. I wanna go there real quick with that.

Yeah.

All right, so to your point on as you age in this, and it's like this in sports, but I'm gonna tell you where else it's prevalent like this. People don't allow athletes to age and appreciate to your point, appreciate what they've done. Right. They try to make where they are then all of what they've done. You know where else that happened at and I hate it and I think it actually ruins the industry in a major way because you're not allowed, the industry essentially ends up always starting over because you don't allow the greats the age and like appreciate just the age and process of it.

Right.

You wanna always take it back to where it was. You know the other industry that's like that?

Music.

Bingo.

Rap. Bingo. Rap.

Bingo.

All day.

There's no OG game in the rap game because we kick all the OGs out. And it's the same thing that's happened in basketball as media has grown more prevalent in basketball. Has gotten bigger and bigger. It's the same exact thing that happens in basketball and in sports in general, but really in basketball, and it's sad. Draymond Green.