Draymond Green & De'Aaron Fox relive Steph Curry's EPIC Game 7 in Warriors-Kings NBA Playoffs series

Last time you were on the pod, you had spoke about how you were tired of hearing about the Kings playoff drought. You obviously went on to break that drought. Y'all obviously face us, unfortunately. But what was it that you end up finding? You know, it's tough talk, tough task.

Tough task, tough task.

Especially in your first playoff series? Because what it came down to is, y'all were probably a better team than us. We just had the know-how. Like, we knew between me and Steph, and just us talking, and then Klay, you know, like, Klay being who he is and what he's done, we just knew how to do it. And so what was it that you found coming out of that playoff series that you like, "All right, when I get back there, I know," I now know this that I think can help us get over the hump.

Oh, I think, I think the big thing is, is adjustments. Like obviously we go to game 7 and good game until halftime and then y'all come out in the third quarter and just punch us in the mouth. And like there was no looking back from, from, from that point in time. But I just think every time y'all made an adjustment,— it like frazzled everybody because guys hadn't been in those positions. Like, I think Domas had played in a playoff series before, but, um, and then HB obviously had played in the Finals. But other than that, like, it was my first time, it was Malik's first time, uh, Egan was a rookie. Kevin had played in the Conference Finals before, uh, but like most of the guys, especially our main guys, were, you know, it's our, it's our first time doing this. Uh, TD's first time, Draymond Green's first time. Like everybody, it was everybody's first, most of the guys' first time being able to be in that type of environment. And even at home, like once y'all hit us in the, in that second half, it was like, yo, what the hell are we going to do? Like we couldn't figure out a way to stop nobody. Then we couldn't really score. Y'all upped the physicality from the first 6 games. And I think it kind of rattled everybody and it was pretty much over. Like. Yeah. Like we literally couldn't, we had no answer for anything that y'all had at that point. But just knowing that and being able to feel a playoff series and like for me playing a team 7 times in a row, I'm like, what the hell is going on? Like my head hurt. I'm tired of seeing them. Like it was, it was, it was different. But I love the feeling. Like I'm like, bro, I'm in the best shape of my life. Like I feel like I could play for another month. And then even last year after we beat y'all and then we lost to the Pelicans, I'm like, bro, like I'm in the best shape. Like I feel like hell. And then the Pelicans go get swept by OKC. I'm like, shit, they could let up winning. I would've got us a game. I would've got us one game. But just being able to have that feeling, it's like, it's hard to describe unless you've been through it. But knowing what it felt like, I'm like, I need to get back there and try to take those next steps. Cause you don't want to be a part of a team that's just, you know, you get in the first round, you get bounced. You get in the first round, you get bounced. Now, are you looking at blowing teams up after that? So, um, it was a good feeling to break that, but at the end of the day, bro, I'm a competitor. So just getting to the playoffs, obviously losing to a team that had just won the championship, obviously I felt good about getting to the playoffs, but then having that, like, I'm, I feel like I'm missing out.

So yeah, I was— I, I think I watched that series, man, and I thought, you know, one, for your, you know, your first playoffs, that was like your You know, everybody say your coming out party. That was your coming out party. I felt like when you guys go up 2 games, y'all was up 2-0, right? We know what happened in game 2, right? Is there anything?

We know what happened.

We know what happened.

We know what happened in game 2.

What happened in game 2, BD?

Man, you got, then you get ejected and kicked out.

Oh, you talking about when bruh grabbed my ankle with both of his hands? That man grabbed my ankle with both of his hands. Check this out, BD.

I didn't think they was gonna suspend you though. I didn't think that.

Look, Doc. I mean, if I was suspended.

That was the most pivotal point in the series though.

Wait one second though, BD, timeout. He grabbed my ankle with both hands. And they specifically told me, they specifically told me, "Nah, that ain't nothing. I just didn't move my arm a few weeks ago. I didn't grab, I just didn't move my arm." And so Zach Eaddy tripped and I was upgraded to a flagrant foul after the game.

Right.

But when my ankle was grabbed with two hands, they told me that, That wasn't nothing. I said, that's crazy. So that's number one, BD. Number two, it was a turning point. You know why it was a turning point? Because they were up 2-0.

Yes.

And they went up 2-0 and they should have just left things the way they were. Mike Brown come out like, oh, we gonna see what the league do. Number one, I was pissed at Mike because, bro, you've been in the foxhole with me. You know the bullshit that I've been up against. And you gonna feed this narrative? Yeah. And ultimately I think it cost them because you changed the way the series look. You up 2-0, leave everything the same.

Yeah, you want the same smoke. You want the same smoke, yeah.

Yeah, we did. Yeah, you just blow 'em out. Because guess what? You know why? So here's what happened. You changed the way it looked. Now your game plan that you, is set. For the team with me. So now you're essentially going into a playoff game where they're completely game-planning for you and what you wanna do. And you're essentially going into the game with no game plan for what they gonna do. And it's like, it's like when Ja, when Ja got hurt, when we was playing them in the championship year, they beat us by 50 the next game because we went into a game and it's not on the coaches, it's just, you haven't seen it. Whereas they've seen your game plan. It's the ear. For 2 straight games. So once y'all changed the game plan, essentially by him saying, oh, we'll see what the league gonna do, as opposed to saying, let's move on. He, he fueled the fire and then y'all got blown out. Now coming back in game 4, again, here's the know-how. We know the adjustments we need to make, right? So now we come back to game 4 and we know the adjustments we need to make. Y'all ain't beating us once we make the adjustments because we know—

Y'all end up winning 3 in a row.

Exactly.

And so it just changed the whole complexity of the series. And—

Yeah, I remember that. I remember game 4, 'cause y'all two got into it. I say, that's what I'll be here for. You know, when my PG don't back down. You know, I love my PGs. When my PGs don't back down, you and Dray got into each other's face. I mean, you know, it's all, competitiveness. I think, you know, just talk about Draymond Green and how he bring that competitive nature outta that series. But more importantly, I think he brought it outta you where you was like, you know what? I gotta be the one.

You know what I mean?

It can't be Sabonis. It's gotta be like you, I think you was like, fuck it, man. It's gotta be me.

I mean, it takes, like you said, like I said before, like, To win at a high level, bro, you gotta be able to match that. And like, he had a hard foul. Is what it is, physical. Gotta match the physicality. So being able to be in that series and like understand that like guys are getting to it. People always talking about, oh, you can't be friends and blah, blah, blah, bro. We can be cool off the court and punch each other in the mouth on the court. Like you fight with your brothers, you fight with your sisters, you fight with your cousins. After it's all said and done, you love him the same. So being able to go through that and like, that was, I think that was obviously, I think that was me and Draymond Green's first time really like getting into it obviously. 'Cause his team's always been blowing my teams out. So it was like, shit, what can I say? You know why we always get our ass whooped. Yeah, you do. So like able to be in that is definitely like, it's cool. And like you have to be able to match that. 'Cause as a, and this is as a team, if you back down and, you know, somebody like him or a team like that, that's won there, that's been there, once they smell blood, it's a wrap. Like, once they sense fear, they sense you really don't want to fight, it's over for you. So that's where we as a team had to step up and be able to match that. And I think once my team saw that, and they already know like how I get, like, if I get pissed off, like, I'm a different person, different player. Mm-hmm. So like them being able to see that, I think helped us be able to extend the series. Cause like you said, they won 3 straight. We go into game 6 at their, at they crib, like y'all can lay down or y'all could try to bring it back home. And I think game 4, even though we lost game 5, like still, we still had that belief. We still had that belief that we could win this series. Yeah. And like I said, game 7, second half, they, And we was rattled, we was rattled. Round 10 and it was over.

Yeah, it was, you know, it was a testament of, hey man, y'all fighting the heavyweight champs. You know what I mean? And you know, y'all young guns and y'all swinging and swinging, y'all fighting, you know, but there was, there's something to what these dudes know. You know what I mean? In that championship pedigree. And when you think about, you know, even Steph setting his playoff career high,, you know, 50 points, you know what I'm saying? It's like, damn, you know what I'm saying?

Like when I said—

When I said Draymond Green—

What was that like? You know what I'm saying? For you, like, what was that like being on the court? I know like it wasn't a pleasant thing, but when you look at it, you know, for where you want to grow and where you want to get to as a player, talk about that Game 7 and how important it is. 'Cause I feel like it's gonna mold your career.

When I say it was nothing you could do, like we threw the kitchen, we threw the kitchen, we threw the whole goddamn kitchen at him. Like we ain't throw the sink, we threw everything that was in the kitchen at him. And there was absolutely nothing you could do. He dribbling around 4 or 5 people and 1, throwing and getting it back and 1, 3. And it was like just a snowball. And it's like, bro, we trying. But once they figured it out. Draymond Green. In that second half, like, no matter what we did, just wasn't working. So, uh, being it like— but a lot of that don't even have to do with just your skill or just their skill. It had to do with their know-how. Once they knew what was— they knew what was going on, how it was doing, how it was going, everybody got it going. Like, it wasn't just Steph, it was everybody got it going, and there was just nothing we could do because we hadn't been there and we didn't know how to adjust to the last thing that they did. Like I said, that's when the series just was over.

It's crazy because, and when you talk about making adjustments, like there's more than just game plan adjustments that need to be made. Like sometimes, and you kind of just hit at it, sometimes in the playoffs there's attitude adjustments that have to be made. And after y'all popped us in game 6, The next morning, I sent something to Steph. I text him at like 3 o'clock in the morning. I couldn't sleep. And so I text him like what my thoughts, and he text me back this book. And he was like, "It's funny you can't sleep 'cause here's what I'm thinking." And it was like a book, like with way more detail than what I was saying. And I'm like, we gotta have a meeting. He like, yeah, we need to have a meeting tomorrow. But you know, I talk in a lot of the meetings. He said, but I got this. All right, big dog, you got it. And we went in that meeting, players only. And he pretty much said to everybody, like, I don't care about your ego. I don't care who you are. I don't care what you do. "Look, if you get on this bus, this is what it is. You come in, you get loose balls, you come in to play hard. I don't care if you play a minute, if you play a second, if you can't play two, I don't care if it's me, if it's Draymond, if it's Klay, I don't care who you are. If you play, you don't play, if you get on that bus, you come with one attitude, you riding with me. If you ain't riding, don't get on the bus." And then he came out and did that. And I was like, "Oh, wow." Love, love. That's crazy.

It's gone.

That's it. Whoa. Like, so it was this, and you know, coming off winning the NBA Finals the year before, you gotta get through that first round. Like, the reality is I don't think we just, we ain't have enough. We ran outta gas, but you just had to muster up everything that you could.

And his little brother, you know, the little bro is biting on them ankles, baby. He wanna scrap. You know what I'm saying? But we gotta give, we got De'Aaron, we gotta give you your flowers. 'Cause in that series, 24-7 and 5, I mean, for a coming out party for, you know, your first playoff game, I think, you know, one, you just, you established that pedigree, you know, that we've all known since, you know, since college. But like to see you mature into that role and to be able to have that stage, man, that's why I love the playoffs. The real one's gonna shine. You know what I mean? The real, the real is gonna prevail and step up. And so, you know, I love seeing that from you and I wanted to give you your flowers in the series. 'Cause taking the champs, you know, the 7 games, man, y'all definitely deserve some credit. And I think Lil Bro, you know, they getting bigger, man.

Yeah, nah, I appreciate it. But where we are now, like, especially where I am in my career and like I'm about to get on my, I'm getting close to getting on my third contract. You want to be a team and a player that's constantly in the playoffs. Can you, can you, obviously everybody wants to win a championship, right? Everybody can't be a contender. Truth of the matter, everybody wants to win. Shit, honestly, everybody don't want to win, truth be told. That's a fair one.

Most don't. Most don't.

You know, you want to be part of that group that's always in the playoffs. And obviously, you know, at times you might have a 2 or 3 year window where you can win a championship here and there, here or there, here or there. So like, you know, for me as a player trying to figure out what we have to do to take that next step because you know, you don't wanna always be like, oh, and you know, we lost to the Warriors 'cause they just won a championship and they beat us in the first round. Like, I can't let that be just the only story that we have to tell. So, I mean, it's still a lot of work that we have to do as a team, as an organization. But I think we're trying to build towards that. You don't wanna have that just one-off. Y'all had a good season, you broke the streak and then shit start Again.