Draymond Green and Chris Paul discuss their chemistry on the Warriors. Paul says he would have declined free agency unless Green also returned, and Green credits Paul's calm feedback in huddles for helping him channel his intensity into better play-calling.
Chapters
One of the things that you've helped me with a ton is how I speak. You know, I'll come in the huddle and I'm like, yo, what the fuck? Like, why are we switching this? Like, this don't make sense. We should have been stopped switching this. I been said, let's stop. And you like, yo, yo, yo, hold on. Like, what are you saying? What do you see? What are you saying? I'm like, all right, well, they keep hitting us with this same play. We keep switching it. I don't understand why we're switching it. It's putting us at a disadvantage here. Then they're getting to this thing and you like, all right, so what do you think we should do?
Yeah.
I think we should guard it like this. I think we'll take it away. All right, y'all hear that? That's what we doing. We going to this. And I remember the first few times you did it. When you finished, I sat there and I felt stupid because I'm like, I just came in here yelling, screaming, like blurting out what I think should happen. And he just totally calmed me down and got the point across just like that.
But you know why though, Draymond, and it's so crazy, man, is because I've almost needed a me too, right? So gang of my teammates will probably hear this and be like, what? Chris was doing what? 'Cause I've usually always been the guy who's yelling. You know what I'm saying? And still now I'll do that. But I think over the years, what I've tried to do is, you know, everybody always remembers. It's just like if you tell somebody how good they are 1,000 times, if you tell 'em they bad one time, they don't remember that. Fact. Right? So people may have whatever perception of me or whatnot, but for my whole career, I'm the guy who I text my teammates at night after a game, good job, this, that, and the third. You know what I mean? Like always encouraging them, but people always gonna remember how you were sort of hard on them. But that is what it is. But like David West, back when I played in New Orleans, I never forget, he came to me one of my practices and he was like, "Hey, Peezy, you gotta chill. You gotta chill. You gotta watch how you talking, Peezy." That's what he said to me. Yeah. And I remember, and I was like, yeah, D, but I just wanna win. You know, listen to what I'm saying, not how I'm saying it. And I still have times where I'm on 10, you know? And sometimes it's necessary, but that's why I can appreciate somebody like you because I hear what you saying. You know what I mean? Yeah. I ain't tripping at how you saying it. You know what I mean? But being in the huddle with you, it's like, I need somebody else to care like this nigga care. You know what I'm saying? Which they do, you know what I mean? But it's a passion. And I think that's why, That's why, like I said, I love being your teammate.
I appreciate it. No, I think, man, it's been incredible. And like I said, you come into these shows with this template, but then sometimes these conversations just go. And man, I've also told several people this, and I would have never in a million years imagined it happening. If I, I have not sat down and done the exercise. So I will one day do that, I just haven't. But if I put up a list of teammates and like I went down this list and it's been 12 years now for me and I went through this list of teammates and like, all right, I start putting my list in order of my top teammates. I haven't done the exercise, but what I'm certain of is that you're top 5 in like my list of top teammates. And it's been such an incredible, oddly enough, I've had the tumultuous year that I've had as far as things have been going just this season and right in that ship, but— Draymond Green. The time that I have been with the team and my practices, you know, our practices and time spent together in games and all of those things, I'm like, yo, he represents everything that I could want in a teammate. Shit going wrong, first person to check on you. Stuff went right, first person to congratulate you. Mm-hmm. "Yo, what you doing for dinner? What you doing with this thing? What you doing with that thing? Yo, what do you see on the floor? I'm seeing this, you seeing that thing?" Across the board. And I'm like, "Wow, that's what I try to be for teammates." You know, like I try to be all of those things for teammates. A guy got an MRI, "Yo, how was your MRI? Everything good with you?" The moment you find out, you know, sometimes you don't find out those things right away. You look online like, "Oh." Yeah. You know, like, "You had MRI." And so, like just all of those things and, and like checking all of those boxes. And I don't even know where I'm going with this, but I just want you to know that.
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Nah, you know what it is, Dre? It's crazy. And like, as long as we didn't compete against each other, right? Like I told you, like when this trade happened, you was a free agent or whatnot. And I'll never forget when they called me and said it was a possibility and people wouldn't even notice except for my family. I told them, I said, well, I don't wanna come if Draymond ain't signing back. Right? And that's why me and you always talk about it like, the social media world and all that, they don't never really know what's really happening. And so I didn't wanna come to the Warriors without you being here.
Absolutely.
And so as much as we didn't fought and got into it and all that, I saw the way that you protected Steph, Klay, all them guys over this time, man. And it was like, damn, if we can figure it out, you know, and we can play and be on the same team, it's gonna be hell for the other teams. You know? And so that's what I've appreciated, man. And regardless of how the season been so far, that's where the ups, the downs, the wins and losses, they come. But that's why we keep saying in our locker room, we gonna be fine. We gonna be fine.
And I think for me, like, you know, you go through these things and you're trying to sort through the things, trying to figure it all out. And I think for me, the thing that I can always turn back to is like, but I got some guys that I wanna make this right for. You know, like regardless of what you may go through mentally, you know, for me mentally going through like, yo, I'm probably done. Like I don't even know if I can really handle all of these things no more. You know, like is this really what I wanna be doing anymore? And going through and processing all those emotions and feeling those feelings, I think for the, Like this is the, you know, and going through all the things that I've went through in my career, the ups, the downs, I feel like this is one of the first times I really just took a step back and allowed myself to feel it.
Yeah. And it's necessary. And it's been dope to like be on that journey with you and the guys and all this stuff, man. But it's crazy for me to see because, you know, All the guys, the guys that are retired, the guys who came before us, it's a lot to bear. You know, it's a lot, it's a lot of pressure. It's a lot thrown at us, not just to be the best athlete, but life. You know what I mean? And so to try to hold it all together for everybody is what we all try to do. And that's why it's been dope to be able to lean on each other. You know what I'm saying? 100%. You going through what you going through, a lot of other people, but you still trying to be there for other guys. You know what I mean? 100%. When you get on the other side of it, man, like we always talk about, you know, we smile, we laugh and everything gonna be cool.
No doubt, no doubt. And I think for me, it's looking at you, it's looking at Steph, it's looking at, you know, young guys, Klay, and it's like, no, but I wanna do it right, get right and do it right for them.
