Draymond Green credits Mark Jackson with building confidence in Steph Curry and Klay Thompson through encouragement to embrace their shooting, while Steve Kerr's five-year, $25 million contract gave him power to transform the offense. Jackson's foundation of belief and Kerr's systematic approach combined to shape the Warriors dynasty.
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What's up everybody? Welcome to the Draymond Green Show YouTube channel. Make sure you hit that subscribe button. Make sure you like the post that you love, but you can get everything the Draymond Green Show right on our YouTube channel. So make sure you subscribe, check that out. Thank you. But I was very much so undersized for the position.
For sure.
And so the way it didn't all— you look at it now and it's like, it feels like an eternity ago because the way the game is played now.
He was way ahead of the curve. Do you give Mark Jackson credit for that?
Like— What, you know what I give Mark Jackson credit for? Because here's what I will, like, I can't give Mark Jackson all the credit for that style. And by the way, Coach Jackson, to me, is like, that's like, it still baffles me that he's never got an NBA job.
Oh, I can't believe it.
It's insane.
I say all the time, it's crazy.
It's insane. I can't give him credit for that per se because The switch for me starting like permanently actually came under Steve.
Okay.
I don't personally think Mark had the blessing or okay to even be able to do that. 'Cause you think at the time D'Lea is making $16 million a year.
And her All-Star.
And All-Star.
Right.
And this is at the time where 16 is max, you know, like.
16 is 40 now. Exactly.
Right. Like people hear 16, they're like, oh, Like that was max at that time.
Right.
And so I don't think he necessarily had the power to even be able to put me in the starting role. Whereas opposed to when Steve came in, Steve came in with a whole different power. People forget when Steve first came in, he came in with a 5-year, $25 million deal.
Sure did.
When that was a ton for coaches.
Yeah, for sure.
He was a first-time coach.
Yeah.
He came in with a totally different power. And so, but what Mark, but where I do give Mark credit is, The confidence that he instilled in us to be okay with being us. The confidence that he instilled in Steph to be like, "Nah, dude." Like, I can remember vividly conversations, him like, "Nah, dude, you the baddest dude on the planet." This is before Steph Curry's an All-Star.
Bro, he said Steph and Klay were the best shooting backcourt. We all was like, "Is he crazy?" What's wrong with you? Everybody though.
Absolutely. "Russ, what's wrong with you, dude? Why are you saying these things?" We're like, we're in meetings, we're in locker room, we're in practice. And he's like, "Dude, you're the baddest dude on the planet." And I'm just sitting there like, this dude's really telling him he's the baddest dude on the planet.
Right.
Steph was just now starting to come into his own. Like coming off the ankle injury. I remember my rookie year, starting my rookie year before, Training camp actually starts. This is when they're in talks about giving Steph the 4-year, $44 million contract that he signed.
And Ty Lawson, Drew Holliday, they all signed that same deal.
DeMar DeRozan, they all signed the same deal. And I remember this clearly. Steph came in for an individual workout. The owners, front office, doctors, everybody sitting at his workout as if we're sitting here at Hinkle Fieldhouse and Steph is working out right there.
Like going through the draft process or something.
Watching his workout because he was coming off the ankle surgeries. So they're trying to figure out through a workout, is he healthy enough to give him this $44 million?
That is crazy.
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It's the most unbelievable thing. Meanwhile, Mark Jackson is telling this man, you the baddest dude on the planet. Klay Thompson, like Klay has no conscience.
Zero.
Sometimes to a fault. But guess what? What I've learned is your biggest fault can also be your biggest strength, right? And so sometimes even to a fault, most coaches would have essentially forced him to have a conscience.
For sure.
Mark Jackson fed that, like, "No, dude, you don't think, shoot. Like, what you thinking about? Shoot the ball." Right. "You're that good of a shooter. This the best shooting backcourt of all times, blah, blah, blah." And so what Mark instilled in us allowed us to become that. Because the confidence—
That he gave.
That he poured into us. I remember the very first day I stepped on, one of my biggest pet peeves is when people call me too small. Like, "Oh, he too small for the position." So David Lee got the ball in the post. D. Lee, that's my dog. That's my vet. D. Lee got the ball in the post. And you know D. Lee, you played with D. Lee.
He was my rookie, he's your vet. That's crazy.
D. Lee's an asshole.
Yeah.
Like, I love him to death.
Smart aleck and all that. I love him too. Asshole, bro.
Yeah, that's D. Lee. So D. Lee gets the ball. He catch the ball in the post. I'm on this side and he's like, "Oh, I got a mouse. I got a mouse. Mouse, y'all better come help me.
I got a mouse." Oh, that just turned.
He's holding the ball on this side. I reach over, snatch the ball, throw D. Lee down, take off. Like, don't ever fucking call me boss.
Don't ever fucking do that.
Are you crazy? Mark Jackson is pouring into that. Yeah. He telling me right away, as soon as I get drafted, I'm on the phone with him. I want you to come in here and I wanna see the same Draymond Green I saw at Michigan State. Leadership, blah, blah, blah.
But he's saying it and meaning it though.
Absolutely. So he instilled that in us, like where we believe. So then Steve come in, Steve implements a great offense. Mark Jackson had our defense on point already. Steve comes in to take the offense to the next level.
So that's when the magic happened.
And not only does Steve take the offense to the next level, but Steve takes the winning ways to the next level because He's one of the ultimate winners in this league.
Yes, he is.
Like Steve Kerr. If you look at the NBA, Steve Kerr, Phil Jackson.
Pop. Pop.
Pat Riley.
Yeah, it starts getting very short after that.
When you look at, when you bunch that group of guys together, They account for like 40-something championships in NBA history, if not more. That group of guys, Steve Kerr is in that group.
He's in that group.
Of guys. He's the ways, the things Steve Kerr has taught me about winning is insane. And so what Steve then brought was like that, the offense and the winning ways.
And think about what you just said. You said Steve Kerr, Phil Jackson, Pop, and Pat Riley. The other two he played for.
Absolutely.
So all the knowledge he got from those two, right? And they may not see it exactly the same. 'Cause I know Pop comes from the Larry Brown coaching tree, right?
Yep.
So it's like the knowledge he's giving, I'm sure the details you're getting, the game you're getting is just, that's priceless.
Absolutely. And so, That's where it changed. It really changed for us. Like Mark instilled it in us, but Steve took it to another level for us. Okay. So that was—
