Draymond Green On Steph Curry’s Greatness, LeBron Friendship, Biggest Career Question & More | EP 17

Welcome back to another episode of Podcast P presented by PrizePicks, a Wave Sports and Entertainment original. We missed y'all last week, but this week we got a big treat for y'all. We got the 4-time champion. I mean, shit, need I say more? Like the man, what, what, he had a triple dub with less than 10 points.

Keep going, keep going.

4-time NBA All-Star.

Little more.

Saginaw's greatest. I mean, we got my boy, two-time USA Olympic medal winner.

Like—

Keep going. The resume is crazy. We got Draymond Green in the building, y'all.

My dog.

Hey, reach it over, daddy.

Appreciate y'all having me on, man. I'm excited. This is fun for me, man. And just, Like when you first got in the podcast space, I remember hitting you, but I think it's so dope that you're doing it and like just sitting here talking to Jackie and like how the guest list go. And all of a sudden, you know, you start off, no, nobody wanna come on the show. Then everybody see you break the ice.

Right.

Now everybody wanna be on the show. I think it's dope, man. I've been enjoying the show and I appreciate y'all having me on.

Appreciate you. You jumped the gun. We gotta shout your show out first. For giving us just the confidence to go and dive into this platform. I remember we did have the conversation when we played y'all and bro, I'm picking your brain a little bit like, man, you like it? How is it? Like, and you kept it 100 with me. So I appreciate you for that. Absolutely. But we appreciate you for just trailblazing this space for us and allowing me to just be comfortable to talk, you know, freely. 'Cause at the end of the day, I feel like that's what the fans want to hear from. Like they tired of, no disrespect, shout out Stephen A, but they want to hear from the athletes. They wanna hear from our side. The real shit. Like the real shit.

Absolutely.

That's what I took from your show.

No, for sure.

The real.

The real. You know, and I think for me, you know, I watched a few guys too, like JJ Redick. I think JJ Redick probably helped me more than anybody. And he gave me like some of the sound advice, most sound advice that anyone could give me. And I actually said it to you. And number one, I wanna apologize to y'all guests for last week, 'cause I was supposed to be on last week. And then, No lie, I went to Paris. So I was still on vacation. Tell the fans, Draymond Green, tell the fans. I went to Paris, I was still on vacation. And so I apologize for that. But one of the best things JJ Redick ever said to me, he said, listen, when you do it, you have to be committed to it and you have to give your listeners what they want each and every week. Maybe you miss a week here, maybe you miss a week there, but you have to get that to the fans. And that's something that I really took to heart and I probably went overboard. All of a sudden I'm getting suspended from games and shit and going Going back to the hotel and talking about it right after. But like, that was some of the best advice I could have gotten. And I see that y'all been keeping it up.

Yep.

And it's huge with your fan base.

That's one of, that's the thing I remember you told me was the consistency. Just be consistent. Like, make sure you get one in a week and make sure you putting that shit up there every week. I remember that's what you told me on a consistency standpoint. You won, you got some awards from your show. Won a couple. Do they go up there with the rings?

Draymond Green.

They go up there with the NBA rings? You know what? Same ballpark or?

Here's why I would say they're not in the same ballpark. Because as you know, I grew up playing basketball just like yourself. You stink, so not so much you, Jackie. But you know, and growing up, and it's the same for you doing your field, growing up, like, you aspire to win the championship. You aspire, you know, to win all the awards, Oscars or any award for that matter, Emmys. And so, For me, it could never compare to that, right? Because I didn't aspire to do this, you know, like it was something that all of a sudden you get to talking. Then I was, you know, given the opportunity to go on TNT, and I'm like, oh man, there's something here, you know. And then kind of just fell into it. And once, as you know, as both of y'all know, once we get into anything, the work ethic just gonna come. That's embedded in us. That's what we do. That's all we know. And so then the work ethic like boosts you to here because it's like, oh man, you got something people want to hear. Like it's interesting, you play, that's all dope. And you, and you're pretty good at it. And then the work ethic just propels us to the top.

Right.

You know? And so I think for me it just kind of happened that way. But you know, NBA championship is something that I've been working towards my entire life. You know, aspiring, watching the Bulls, watching the Lakers, watching the Spurs, me watching the Pistons win a championship. You aspire to do that all of your life. So I don't think it necessarily hit the same now. And saying that, it's very fulfilling because, you know, we come in this industry not essentially supposed to be in this industry. We're supposed to be playing and being talked about. And so to come into this industry and, you know, make waves and win some awards is definitely something that I'm appreciative of.

Congratulations on that too.

Congratulations. That's big time. We hope we follow your footsteps.

I'm happy y'all didn't have enough episodes out yet to compete with me.

I would've lost.

I appreciate y'all.

I don't even know the rules of that.

Are we looking down the road? I ain't either. Like, damn, how do we know? The award came out, y'all was at like 7, so I know that wasn't enough, guys. Damn, we missed out.

Should've started earlier.

We gotta wait next year.

Damn, next year.

We got next year.

Gotta get at least a nomination.

Is y'all paying this fly? 'Cause he trying to get some airtime today. What is he doing?

Yeah, I see Draymond hit the U over here.

Yeah, he bothering us.

He came up and said—

You know, we Black, Black. So it's different when you like us. They like to land on us, man.

I just came back from Cabo, so I got a little extra tint now. —like us too, but I ain't gonna say that. But you ugly now that you done got rid of that beard. You nasty, motherfucker.

Listen, I just look—

I'm older than them, I look younger. They just hate it.

That's all it is.

Look, the NBA season is done, but that doesn't mean PrizePicks is. Guess what sport I'm making money on now? Ah, baseball, baby! Look, I'm up big thanks to Mookie Betts and Mike Trout, who are helping me cash in this season. But I gotta let people know what PrizePicks is. I got to do that. PrizePicks is a daily fantasy app. You pick 2 to 6 players like the video on your screen, then pick if they will have more or less than their PrizePicks projections. You aren't competing against other people, it's just you versus the projections available. Look, I know how much I won, but let me tell the people how much they can win. Look, you can win up to 25 times your money on any entry. And on top of that, all first-time users that deposit and use our promo code PODCASTP will receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100. That means if you deposit $20, PrizePicks will give you $20. If you deposit $100, PrizePicks will give you $100. And like I always say, Dallas, what we say?

Dallas.

He ain't here. Cha-ching! I wanna know, just like, —just like in the NBA—do you care about, on your podcast, the backlash that you get from your fans or anything, or when your team doesn't play well?

So initially, I worried about it because, and you know, Jackson, who's the producer of my show, I would say to him, you know, initially, like, "Ah, I don't know if I should say that because it's gonna catch backlash this way." And so initially, I did care. But then once people started trying to make it about, "Well, why do you have a podcast? You should be in the gym." And I'm like—

That's a dummy shit, right?

Like, that's so fucking stupid. Because even if I wasn't sitting here doing this podcast, I wouldn't be in the gym right now.

Right.

So what I do with this 30 minutes or this hour of my time, The fact that your response is, "You should be in the gym," lets me know how dumb you are.

Mm-hmm, very stupid.

You know, and so then, like I said, I got into it and I'm just like, "Yo, this will be dope. Like, it'll be cool," right? And then once I started to see like, "Wow, this thing is actually becoming another business of mine," then it got really interesting because then people would say, "Oh, like, you should just focus on the game. Y'all suck right now. Like, stop podcasting and this, that." And I thought to myself, at the time. Jack Dorsey owns Twitter, or founded Twitter because it's a publicly traded company now, but CEO of Twitter, CEO of Cash App, CEO of Square. All of those companies are operating at multiples of billions of dollars a year. Mm-hmm. And this guy is doing all three. 'Elon Musk is launching jets with SpaceX, building cars with electrical power with Tesla, building Wi-Fi that just drops outta the air somewhere, and y'all are telling me my 30-minute to an hour podcast is fucking the world up.' Right, right. Like once I accepted that, then it was just, as me being who I am, it was just more fuel to my fire to do another podcast and piss 'em off more. Oh, they mad I did a podcast this week, I'm gonna do 3 and see how mad they get.

They really think y'all gonna wanna play basketball all day.

But it makes no sense.

Like, I got kids, I gotta go to my kids, what's going on, recitals right now.

Right.

I gotta drop my kids off to school. I gotta play with 'em. What they think y'all supposed to do all day? Just play basketball?

I'm not gonna lie, I was a little hesitant to start out too. What helped me, we went on like, what was we like, a 4 or 5 game winning streak since we had dropped the pod. And that helped with me just being like, okay, this is not interfering with my focus. It's not interfering with, you know, what I'm doing off the court. I'm still getting my work in. I'm still devoted and dedicated to this game. Like, we're good. I can do this. And so I was good. The numbers was—

It's something for him to do.

Yeah. And then I got hurt. So then it was like, all right, now this was like, you know, foreshadowing of like, damn, I need to start getting into other shit and start venturing off.

They was even saying that in the comments. I read the stuff that they was saying. Like, why you doing a podcast? Why you doing a pod? Why you doing a podcast?

Why you not rehabbing? Why you not coming back?

Should I rehab for 20 hours a day? That's probably not healthy either. Or maybe the 60 hours that I've done. Like, all right, I can use this one for this podcast.

Yeah. People stupid. Casual fans, man. They don't—

We love the fans though, 'cause y'all do keep it real, you know? But sometimes y'all just do too much. But—

I love some of the fans.

You gotta love 'em. It's a love and hate thing.

No, I love some of the fans. Fans, and I strongly dislike others. And that's okay. You know why? Because some of the fans love me and some of them strongly dislike me. So it's okay.

Oh, you'll know. I think they keep it real. They just not realistic. Like—

That part.

That's what it comes down to.

They overthink too. I think they overthink too much.

Gonna drop a couple today.

They overthink way too much sometimes. Like thinking y'all just—

They just too invested on like, be a fan, be a fan of the game. Like you too invested on other shit that has nothing to do with you.

Like they probably think y'all don't eat, y'all don't sleep. It's like, it's summer, they think y'all video control just football.

Like we, like yeah. Fast forward to summers, once season start, they right back in mode. Like that's what they think. We don't got no other life in between that.

That's a fact.

Once the season over, fast forward, get back to the next season.

Look, Draymond Green, growing up in Michigan, I got a homeboy, shout out to Michigan, Moe Pete.

Moe Pete.

Shout out to Moe Pete. Being from Michigan, I wanna know who was the first person to put a ball in your hand or NBA person that gave you the inspiration to say, "I wanna play basketball." The first person to put a ball in my hand, I can't tell you because my family is a basketball family.

Like, everybody play basketball and if you don't, you're weird. Like, that's just—

That was the thing to do.

That's just what we do, you know?

Okay.

And so the person who really taught me the game of basketball though was my uncle. Mm-hmm. Like my uncle, Uncle Benny, he taught me the, you talking about building a foundation? Like the foundation that he set for me.

Mm-hmm.

Like, and like, I don't know where I would be without the foundation. So that was a big thing for me. And then growing up, like I was always a fan of the game. Like always watched the game. So I mentioned like the Bulls, like, The Bulls are the first team that I can vividly remember winning an NBA championship. Like that I can go back, like the Pistons won when we was like 2 or 3. Right, right. Don't remember that. Matter of fact, Pistons won in what, '89 and '90. Wasn't born, I was born in '90. And so like, but I can vividly remember the Bulls. That's the first one that I really remember. And so like that was inspiring. But you just mentioned Mopeet, that's funny. Because you gotta think Mo Pete done won a championship in 2000.

Yep.

At Michigan State.

Him and Mateen.

I was 10 years old. Mo Pete, Mateen Cleaves, my OG Mo Cleaves, Charlie Bell, Draymond Green.

Yeah.

Those guys won a championship in 2000. In '98, '99, they went to the Final Four.

Yep.

So when I saw those guys from Flint, Michigan, which is 20 minutes away from Saginaw, that was the first thing that was like, ah, I can do that. And from that point on, I wanted to go to Michigan State.

Flintstones.

Because like we all, we call it the Flint-Saginaw connection. Like 20 minutes away, they're the same city.

Right, right, right.

20 minutes from same city. And so when I saw those guys do it, and my aunt went to Michigan State, she played at Michigan State in the early '90s. And then I saw those guys go to Michigan State and win a national championship. Mo Cleaves jumping around on one leg. On one ankle doing his little dance. That for me was the first thing to open my eyes to like, ah, I want to be like that and I want to go there and I want to go to the NBA. And so I have to give it to those guys. It's the Flintstones for sure.

Okay. So the Fab Five didn't have no influence at that time? Zero.

Not the Fab Five. Love J-Rose.

Yeah.

C-Webb. Love those guys. They're amazing at what they did for the game of basketball.

The Flints, bro.

It's like, that's like, you talk about culture being in basketball.

Yeah.

They brought that, you know? And so I take no credit from those guys. And both of those guys for sure know it's always love from me. They the OGs, but they know I cannot rock with that Michigan shit. Just can't. It cannot happen. I'm a Spartan dog. You cut me open, I bleed green. See the last name. Tell 'em, tell 'em. No, but they were, I was just too young to even really know what was going on with the 5'5". Like when I remember Michigan, I remember Tractor Trailer. Like that's the first, that's the first University of Michigan team players that I remember from the University of Michigan. They brought up Tractor Trailer.— is around the same time as Mo Kleeze now. And so maybe if they could have won a championship, maybe I would have—

Might have swayed you a little bit, huh?

But Spartan Dawgs went and won a championship, tilted me that way.

That's funny. You got a special and a specific style of play with toughness, with your ability to literally do everything asked on the court. Who did you model your game from or where did that come from? Was that just a natural? Way you just like learn the game? 'Cause like for me, I learned to play from my high school coach. He's the one that really taught me to like, my, the way I played was like, make everybody else around me better. Like that's your goal. That's, you play the right way, you play for your teammate. And that's kind of just how it was instilled in me. And I took that with me. Granted, I just been, you know, blessed to be a good scorer and be elite at scoring. So I kind of, Like my coach used to, he'll make me run suicides for not shooting the ball. Like I was too passive and before I was a senior in high school, I was too passive. So he used to make me run.

Just for not shooting the ball.

For not shooting that ball. Usually, motherfucker, you run for shooting too much, taking bad shots. He'll make me run for not shooting enough.

Why you didn't wanna shoot?

I just, I was a passer, bro. I was always just trying to make the right play. Like knowing the extra pass, like I was that person. Extra pass, swing, swing. Like, and so he instilled in me like, no, you can score. I've seen you score. Like, so he helped me with that. But like, who did you model your game after?

That's very interesting you say that because I feel like even throughout the course of your NBA career, you got more and more aggressive. Like when you came to Indiana, you weren't super aggressive. Like you showed signs of like, oh shit, he got some shit. But she was doing everything else. And so I think that's very interesting to hear. You know what's crazy is I actually used to only wanna score. Really?

Like, you know. This is interesting.

Like, I actually only wanted to score.

'Cause these are stories I like to hear.

I didn't used to, like, I was always a great help side defender, but more often than not, I would overhelp. Like, I went, I made all defensive team my senior year and my assistant coach, Dwayne Stevens at Michigan, he laughed at me. He was like, "They just put you on here because of who you are. Like, you ain't playing no goddamn defense." I'm like, "D, what do you mean?" He like, "You always overhelping. You don't really play no defense." Yeah. I really didn't start locking in on defense till I got to the league because that was my only way on the floor.

Right.

It was all about, And like I could always make the right play. Like I was trying to score the basketball. Like I was a scorer, I would go score the basketball. My only way onto the court as a rookie was to defend. Like we needed to stop, I go in to get the stop. And so one thing that I learned about the NBA is you can never stop doing what you started doing. Exactly. You can expand, but you can't stop doing that thing.

You gotta evolve.

The moment you stop doing that thing, you're gone. Mm-hmm. Defense just became like, well, I gotta be great at that. And so I just wanted to get better at it. Making the right play. I'm out here with Steph and Klay and then KD and all these guys. Like, that's adding value to me. I always would watch a bunch of different people though, because I never felt like, like I never felt like I can look in the NBA and see like, ah, that's the guy I'm gonna model my game after. Right? Mm-hmm. So like, You know, I used to score the ball. I used to do a lot of mid post. I used to watch Melo in the mid post, all type of stuff, footwork. Melo's got the craziest footwork, some of the craziest footwork I've ever seen.

Ever.

And like, so I would watch Melo, I would watch a bunch of different guys and just try to pull stuff from their game because in my mind I'm like, well, all right, well I do got a little mid post work, but I ain't 6'9" and can get to the hole and explode like Melo. So I gotta do something else. Or, you know, I got something like, this guy, so do a little bit of this. I would watch David West, I would watch Paul Millsap, 'cause I'm like, all right, they're similar in size.

Nice, yup.

Play the 4. I need to know how to be an undersized 4, right? Like I used to watch all of these different guys and just try to put it all together because I just didn't feel like there was a carbon copy for me. Or I could turn on the TV and be like, oh man, I need to model everything after this guy. If I can model everything after this guy, that'll be my draft comparison. I just didn't have that. And so I just wanted to watch a bunch of different guys and put a bunch of stuff together and hopefully that it would work.

Oh, damn.

But like, I had great coaches growing up. Like starting with my uncle, my high school coaches was incredible. Coach Dawkins, Coach Bruce, Coach Jew, like they were incredible. The one person who I think really changed my life and like obviously Coach Izzo, best coaches I've ever had, if not the best. But the one coach who really changed my life His name is Duran Speedy Walker. And Speedy is a scout for the Detroit Pistons.

Okay.

But—

Where was he at before this?

More importantly than being a scout for the Detroit Pistons, that's his day job, Speedy founded the Family, the Family basketball team. And I went and played for the Family my senior year, going into my senior year. And Speedy told me, he was like, "Man, you great, you good." I'm like, "Thanks, Coach." Like, hell yeah, I'm feeling good about myself. He's like, "But bro, you can't just be down here playing the 5, man. You guard size." Yeah. And Speedy started making me dribble the basketball more, which I already had the skills. I grew up dribbling, shooting the basketball more, driving the basketball more, not just posting up. And that opened my eyes to a totally different world and is a huge part of the reason I am who I am. It's because it showed me that I had to expand my game. Like, Shaq was my favorite player growing up. So I'm going to the block thinking I'm about to move people like Shaq. He like, "Hey man, you ain't Shaq size." Like, "You shooting guard size, bro. So you gonna have to shoot the ball." Where's he from?

Detroit.

Detroit.

He always do this. Like, "You gotta get yourself in shape, man. You too fat." Like, and it really, he really, really changed my life because he changed my perspective on what I thought on what I should be as a basketball player.

Do you still see him today when you go play?

That's my guy. Absolutely. I still talk to him. We talked more through this playoff series than we've talked in years. And it was huge for me. I talked to him the night before every game. And like we would talk for like an hour and he would just like get me locked in, like help me understand. He had a way of like taking me back to high school and things that I was doing, like wrapping them back around and then just talking about life. Marriage, like all the things. And it was a real calming thing for me. You know, you get in these playoffs, man, everything just tight.

Right, intense.

You know what I'm saying? And so it was really calming for me to have those conversations. But absolutely, that's my guy.

That's what's up. I wanna stay on that because your game coming outta college, I saw your Summer League and dog, I was like, I ain't even know Draymond can move like this. Like you was hitting hezzies, like step back threes, like, getting to the cup. Like, I'm like, dog, this, he really got an iso game. Like—

I got a little bit.

And then, but nah, it was crazy, bro. You gotta look up, watch, watch his, his Summer League clip. He going crazy.

Draymond was doing isos.

Draymond doing iso.

He doing shit that I didn't even know Draymond could move like this.

I didn't know he could move like this.

I gotta see him do an iso. I gotta see this.

It's an interesting thing. You brought up though, because a lot of guys are talented, but when you're put in that position where you come into the league and you gotta find your niche in order to get on the floor, homie, listen to this as we talking about it. 'Cause I went through the same situation when I got to Indiana. They plugged me in a corner and I had no involvement on plays, no nothing. I wasn't touching the ball unless it was getting swung to me. Mm-hmm. I had the open shot 'cause I didn't shoot it well my rookie year, but I took the same approach. The only way I'm gonna get on this floor is if I play defense.

Mm-hmm.

For you guys, you being, and you having Steph there, you having Klay there, like when did it click that like, "Oh, we got something special if I lock into this, I'm gonna be our toughness, I'm gonna be our facilitator, I'm gonna make the game easy." 'Cause like I said, you had the game to be elite score and getting your own shot off. I seen it. But you had to make that adjustment. When did you like, you know what, these dudes are elite shooters. I'ma do this, this, and that.

You know, one thing it was very interesting for me in summer league because when I was doing all of that stuff and I had all that, I was coming off the bench. And so I'm like, this is interesting because What I'm going out here and I'm providing and I'm doing and I'm playing at a very high level coming off the bench. So that's where it started.

Mm-hmm.

Then as we get into the season, Mark Jackson told me the day before our first game, he was like, "Hey man, I just want you to know this stuff has a weird way of playing itself out. And like you always get an opportunity. Everyone always get an opportunity. Just make sure you're ready for that opportunity. Not sure when that opportunity's gonna be." I'm not sure what it's gonna be, but just make sure no matter what the opportunity is, you ready for it. And so I would immediately start getting thrown in for defensive possessions. And I'm like, all right. And I remember when they first drafted me, when I first talked to Mark Jackson, he told me, he was like, listen, I want the guy coming here that I've seen at Michigan State. You lead, you toughness. Like, we need toughness on this team.

Yeah.

I want you to come here and be exactly who you are. Don't take a backseat to nobody. Don't do none of that. Use your voice. Be tough, be exactly who I've watched all of these years. So like, number one, he gave me confidence and that was huge. And it'll be funny how confidence is a very funny thing. [LAUGHTER] It gave me confidence to be that. And I'm like, all right, so cool. So then I'm like, I'm just watching Steph and Klay and them play. And like Steph's coming down the court and I set a drag screen for him. And like what he did off the drag screen, I'm like, hmm, that was interesting. "Gonna set another drag." And it got to the point to where I'd be running down the court and like I'd just veer off like, I don't know, just veer off crazy. I look crazy out there just running, veering, trying to go set a screen for Steph. But what I found was, A, his ability to play out of a screen and roll opened up. But what it opened up was me in the pocket. And what I found was my playmaking. Through that. And I quickly realized that David Lee was incredible. David Lee was a scoring machine, could score the ball left hand, right hand. All-Star. Mid-range, off the dribble, you name it. D. Lee was getting to it. And I didn't quite feel like I was as good of a scorer as him. And so I'm like, "All right, once David Lee gets hurt, well, I can't come in here trying to score because I can't score as well as David Lee." at this point.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

So if I go in there trying to score, then I'm just a lesser version of what they already have.

Right.

Smart. So my mindset wasn't to go in there and score. My mindset was go in there and do everything that David doesn't do.

Got you.

Right? So I'm gonna go in there and lock up. D. Lee ain't playing no goddamn defense. I love D. Lee. That's one of my OGs. I love D. Lee. D. Lee ain't playing no defense. I am going to run and screen like nobody's tomorrow. D. Lee gonna set a screen, but D. Lee gonna set that screen to get him open. D. Lee ain't setting that screen to get you open. Yeah. So I'm like, I'm gonna go screen and I'm gonna get these guys involved differently than D. Lee does because D. Lee is gonna score the ball and he's a hell of a passer, but he averages like 3, 4 assists a game because that's not really what he's focused on doing. He is focused on putting the, as he should be, He's focused on putting that ball in the hoop. And so I'm gonna go get these guys involved like nobody else is getting them involved. And so that was my mindset, but it was totally, it was just totally off of trying to do something different than he does. So if I can go do this, they won't compare me to him. They won't hold me to the standard that he's held to as far as scoring the ball every night.

Right.

And I can just bring my own thing. We start having success. And once we start having success, this is now really into my third year, Steve takes over. And that's when it really opened that up. And once we start having success, I'm like, "All right, I need to do more and more and more of this." And then I start having my own personal success.

Right.

And it all just blossomed. Now I'll take you to another space though. As that continued to blossom, then we have our success, then KD comes. My individual game as far as scoring and shooting suffered. Because then that became so much of what they wanted me to do, the shooting wasn't a priority at all. It's like, "Oh." And so then I started being called and viewed as a non-shooter, when in fact I shot 37% from 3. Like, I remember. Shot shit out the ball.

Right.

And no one was just helping off of me.

Right.

But then I started being like spoke to and viewed as a non-shooter just because I was doing so much to get those guys involved.

Right.

And in turn, I lost my confidence. And so I lost my confidence in my shot. So how may listen to this too, don't ever lose your confidence. Like, but I lost my confidence in my shot. And you know, I'm trying to get K involved, I'm trying to get Steph involved, I'm trying to get Klay involved. In my mind, I'm thinking like, man, Steph came down and, hoisted 3 crazy shots. And because he dissed, Klay just came down and hoisted one from half court. And next time he came down and hoisted one from the other side of half court. And by the way, it's been now 8 possessions that Kevin hasn't touched the ball. So I catch the ball and I may be in a position to shoot it, but I'm like, K ain't touched the ball. I need to get him a look.

Mm-hmm.

And just making, that's my, that's the point guard in me. Just making sure everybody touched the ball. But it really took an impact. It really had an impact on my offensive game and especially my confidence and my mindset. Because then once it was like, "Oh, well those guys are shooting the ball." So our non-shooter, and it's like, I'm being mentioned as the non-shooter, start to believe it. As great as it was and it has been, and I wouldn't change it for a thing in the world, it had a negative impact as well. Effect on you. Because it, Like I said, I lost all confidence. Like, you going to gym and shoot with me right now, P, I probably can shoot.

Knocking that shit down. No, no, no. Yeah, knocking that shit down.

I'm gonna shoot the piss out the ball. But getting back over that hurdle from the confidence perspective, I feel like I just started getting it back like maybe last year. But it's still a process.

But what people don't understand either is basketball and shooting is such a feel, rhythm thing.

Absolutely.

If you don't, if you get 5 shots in a game, like, like you ain't gonna know if it's your night or not.

Exactly.

Like, you know what I mean? Like you, you don't know if you shooting well tonight or not. Like you could miss 3 threes and be like, damn, like I'm struggling tonight. Nah, bro, you just shot 3 threes.

They always tell me it's all—

Next 3, you could be money. But it is tough when like you do have pressure of having 2 of the best with KD there, 3 of the best 3-point shooters around you. So like it comes a time where it's like, Draymond, swing that like you. So that's pressure. It is pressure.

100%.

And people do not understand that.

That's crazy.

So I'm glad you spoke your truth on that. 'Cause you was a knockdown shooter. And I know like on 2K, I'm hitting the 3 with Draymond. Like you was a shooter on—

I love how we bring 2K in this all the time.

You got to, you got to. 'Cause 2K will tell, 2K will show. He was a B+. Yes.

I love it. For sure. But it was all confidence though.

Yeah.

And like now I'm working to get that confidence back still. You know what I'm saying? And like I said, last year was a big jump for me. It was a big hurdle. Like missed the first one. 'Cause for a while, like I missed that first one. Like, oh nah.

Yeah.

I'm gonna just go do the rest of this shit. I ain't shoot no more.

Right.

And so now I'm starting to get over that hurdle of like, all right, I missed the first one, take another one. I missed the second one. I'm gonna take another one, but I'm still not there. You know what I'm saying? And so I feel like that's what excites me right now about my career going forward. I feel like I'm starting to tap back into that. And I feel like once I tap all the way back into that, I feel like, who gonna stop me? Mm-hmm.

Right.

Because, I mean, if you start overreacting to the shot, I'm going by you and I'm gonna make all the plays. But I still gotta get it back to that point in the confidence of where I'm like, just letting it ride. You know what I'm saying? Like I said, I feel like I'm getting back there, but it's a process, man. Once you lose confidence in like a shot, it's hard. I mean, or you seen people like lose confidence in their game and you like, yo, like what happened to him?

Right.

Like Ben Simmons.

Right.

Gosh.

Ben Simmons is a perfect example.

Summertime, he shoot shit up.

I don't know.

Exactly.

Ben Simmons is still the same Ben Simmons we watched dominate in Philly. You know the only difference between Ben Simmons in Philly and Ben Simmons now? It's confidence. Confidence.

Confidence.

Once you lose your confidence, like, and I feel bad for people who lose confidence in their game. Like, I never lost confidence in my game. So I've still been able to have a really good career and be successful and, you know, do the things that I've done. But I feel bad, but I know how it feels to lose confidence because I lost confidence in my shot.

Right.

Right. I feel bad for people that lose their confidence in that game. 'Cause you're still the same player. Like you're the same person that was going out there and would get 15 assists before someone blinked. And yet you don't feel that you can do that no more because your confidence is gone. And that's what happened with me and my shot.

Watching you, I didn't even think you lost your confidence. I just thought you was playing a different game. Like you didn't wanna shoot no more. But I guess you, yeah, it shows in the, yeah.

But I'll tell you something on that though. You know what I always say to people? I don't really say it to many people, but I'll say it to people who's close to me. The reason you couldn't tell that I lost confidence in my shot is because I was doing everything else so well. And so it's like, if he shooting, he make it, cool. But if he don't, look at all the things that he's doing.

Right.

Right? But I always tell my boys, I would love to see if, people and like a lot of guys had to adjust to what I had to adjust to, could they still become what I've become? Because I had to change everything. Like, could you imagine some, like, I was a scorer my whole life. Like, I didn't do anything else. I would pass the ball 'cause I could always, I always had feel. I was a scorer my entire life. Could you imagine now you just lost total confidence in that?

That's crazy.

You still gotta become an All-Star. You still gotta win championships. You still gotta do all these things. A part of me, I always feel good. Like I can always look back on that to feel good about myself and just know like regardless of what happened in this, like I made a way.

Mm-hmm.

Right. But like, don't get it twisted for one second. Like that shit bothered me.

Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? Bothered me a lot. And then, you know, like I've gotten to a point now to where it don't bother me, but I'm a competitor, man. Like that shit bothered me. Like to watch somebody not guard me, like I really wanna shoot your face off. Like, so I remember—

That's when I noticed something was going on. Getting over the confidence hurdle, right? That's when I noticed something was going on. When you had those moments and you left wide open and you still go to like a DHO or you'll tell Looney, go set the screen away. Like you're looking for that next option. I'm like, "All right, something's bothering him." But I do wanna touch on, like, are you, is it like a bittersweet moment because of you not shooting it or you lost confidence in your shot that it elevated the rest of your game? It elevated your playmaking, your defense, the toughness. I feel like it almost elevated everything else because from your standpoint, it's like, "All right, I'm not shooting it well." I have to do X, Y, and Z better. I have to do this now. Like, is it a bittersweet look?

It is. It's also a coverup. It's a coverup. Because it's bittersweet because, like I said, to know that like I can go do all of those things and still be an All-Star, right? Like I've made All-Star, last year I averaged 7 points.

Mm-hmm.

Like, so it's definitely bittersweet and a great feeling just to know that people appreciate what I am doing.

Mm-hmm.

It's a coverup in the sense of under no circumstance would I let people know that that was bothering me.

Mm.

So in turn, I would just dive further into these things so that the world would just feel like, "Oh, like, that's just what he's doing. Like, that's who he is." Like, so whatever, fuck his shot. Like, that don't matter. Like, but I'm a basketball player, man. Do you actually think it feel good to say fuck my shot? Yeah.

You know, like—

Oh, that hurts.

Like, it hurts.

That hurts. You know, right? So that's been a goal of mine, like making sure that I get that back because when I go home, like that shit burn me up. Like, yo, I was just wide open and they just looked at me and I did not shoot the ball. But I also, didn't have the confidence to shoot that ball. So I'm not just gonna shoot it because I'm open. 'Cause I ain't dumb.

Right.

I'm not confident in this shot. So no, I'm not shooting it. Like, I am open, I probably should shoot it, but I'm not confident in this. So should I shoot it if I'm not confident in this shot? I don't think so. I don't wanna be one of these guys who's just, or didn't wanna be one of these guys who's like not confident in their shot, but because they're open and someone's telling them, "Hey man, you open, you gotta know." Fuck that. Like if I ain't confident I'm about to knock this shot down, I'm not taking the shot.

You don't want to hear that.

You know?

Bro, you open. Next shot. You don't want to hear that.

Fuck that. Like, no, I'm not confident in this shot and I need to figure out how to find confidence again in this shot.

Yeah.

And so that's what I've worked on and that's what I've been trying to do. And like I said, I'm taking steps in the right direction. But yeah, it was a coverup. It's like, I'm gonna be so good at these things. And now granted, Ultimately, it probably ended up helping my career and my legacy more than if I was a great scorer because I wouldn't be the greatest scorer. You know? And so ultimately it's probably helped me more in that sense. But don't for one second not believe that a big, a large part of it was a coverup on just like—

No coverage.

If I struggle that badly on offense, people gonna eat that up if I don't do these things. And I'm way too prideful. To just allow people to eat this thing up. So I'mma, pause, I'mma focus on these things and—

Your principles.

You know, and try to be as great as I can be. And so to your question, I think it did elevate everything else. Yeah.

I wanna talk the, with the NBA draft just happening right now, I'm gonna, you know, take you back down memory lane 2012 when you got drafted second round, which I don't see how, you know what I'm saying? But shit happens. But, uh, my boy over here PG say he had like 18 workouts, like when he was working out to get on the team or whatever. Was your workouts similar or anything?

I had 21 workouts.

Finally somebody higher than you.

Somebody beat me. 21?

21 workouts. And I actually Worked out.

That's crazy.

And then twice.

How you do 21 and go second round?

Yeah. And by the way—

GMs ain't the smartest motherfuckers.

No, not at all. Actually, most of 'em are pretty fucking dumb.

Analytical.

I love it.

But your value, 'cause it's analytical shit. Like they wanna see you in a 103s and they base, oh, he can shoot. The shit out of it. Like, they don't see it in a 5-on-5. Like, your greatest value is put you on the court and let you dominate.

Facts.

You don't see that in draft workouts.

That's true. But I had great workouts. Like, absolutely great workouts. So you killed it. Okay. Dominated the workouts. I shot the ball well. 2-on-2, 3-on-3, 4-on-4. Dominate 'em. Like I had great workouts. So it was really baffling to me that like I fell in the draft like that. But like I fell in the draft because they said, what position would I guard?

That was gonna be my next question.

What position would I guard? So I fell in the draft because they're like, he's not a 3, he's not a 4. He's too short and slow to be a 3. I mean, to be a 4. I mean, he's too short to be a 4. He's too slow to be a 3. So what position is he gonna guard? We don't know. And so I fell in the draft for that reason. But I always, like, you always hear me talk about like the basketball minds and how smart the basketball minds are.

No, them basketball minds regret it.

Like, I don't think they're very smart, but like I worked out for Indiana twice.

Did you?

Yeah. And I thought like—

So there was a chance we could have grabbed you.

100%, pass me. Me from Mason Plumlee. Not Mason. Oh, that was the year we grabbed Mason Plumlee. Miles Plumlee.

Miles Plumlee. Miles Plumlee.

That was the year we grabbed Miles. Yeah, pass me for Miles Plumlee. But it's cool.

He was like pick 20-something, right?

26.

Yeah, he know.

26 pick, pass me. You know, and that was very interesting for me. Carl Nix, who you know.

Yep, Carl Nix.

Carl Nix, that was my guy. But then like so much stuff happened in the draft with Indiana. The day I was there for the second workout was the day Larry— I woke up from my workout and I turned on the TV and Larry Bird stepped down. So I had a lot of— I won't just shit on the GMs for real like I like to, but I had a lot of—

You already did.

I had a lot of misfortune during the draft too. Larry Bird stepped down the day I was there for my second workout, which was a day or two before the draft.

I remember that.

Rick Sun was the GM of, I think, Atlanta. And he stepped down like a week before the draft. Chris Wallace was the GM of Memphis. He got fired or stepped down or something like a week before the draft. And so I had like 3 or 4 teams that was really, really interested in me. Their front office changed within a week and a half. For the draft. And so it was a little misfortune as well. I'm a firm believer in everything always happens the way it should be. But yeah, man, your guys passed up on me and they should blame themselves that you ain't in Indiana no more.

Hey.

You would've came to Indiana, maybe you would've still been there.

'Cause think about it, bro. And G Hill's my guy, but we draft Kawhi, trade him draft day. Like some shit that they, they fucked up on. Absolutely.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

That's funny. You knew Miles at 26, so you know everybody that got drafted in front of you.

Oh, for sure.

You know, you got the whole list.

I keep tabs on all of 'em.

That's crazy.

Just be needing to know what's going on.

Who that got drafted ahead of you was like the most ridiculous one to you?

The most ridiculous? Which one?

The most.

I mean, shit. Wow.

I can't wait to hear this.

Listen, not to throw salt at anybody, but like Andrew Nicholson was drafted over me at like 19.

That's the Saint Bonaventure?

Yeah, you know, like you don't even know how to pronounce the school. You don't even know how to pronounce the school. Like at the time y'all are comparing us as big men who can face, you know, who can play back to the basket or face up to the basket. But I'm looking at this dude and like, Number one, like he don't really look like a basketball player. Like, you know, you got like, I always tell people when it comes to winning, like a part of like half the battle is looking like a basketball player. When you're on a team and you look down.

Bro, stop.

No, and you look at the other side of the floor and if you see guys that don't look like basketball players, you automatically lose respect. And when you lose respect, for those guys, you do things to them in the game that you otherwise wouldn't have done if you respected that guy. So that's half the battle. And so I'm like, no more. This guy doesn't really even look like a basketball player.

He didn't fit the bill. He had a weird body shape.

No, he's weird body shape. And like, don't get me wrong, like, I don't have the body of Adonis, but you know, like, weird body shape. And he like walks like this and like talks like I was a bucket thrower in college. There's no way that this guy is gonna be better than me at basketball. Like, I just don't see that. Like, he don't have the thing, you know? And so like, that was one that really, really, really pissed me off. You gonna get off that. Really pissed me off.

Yeah.

There are several others that went before me, but that was one where I'm like, we're getting compared I worked out against him a couple times and I didn't get drafted. Now another one that really pissed me off, and this one didn't piss me off because I was a better basketball player than him, because he was fucking nice. Royce White. Royce White was super nice.

Super nice.

And we did all of the same things. Like Royce, you know, he was more athletic than me and Royce had big ass hands. Yeah.

And super talented.

But like also another comparison.

Yeah.

And so the reason Royce White pissed me off in getting drafted way before me is not because he wasn't a good basketball player, because I actually believe if he didn't go through the stuff with the mental health that he did, I think he'd still be dominant in the NBA today. But it pissed me off because it's like, all right, we're very similar and all our workouts, we worked out against each other. And like, there were some where I destroyed him, but I also remember a couple that he fucking destroyed me. And so I'm just like, "All right, well, we're very similar. So if he's the 16th pick, I'm 35." Yeah, right. And I know that there's teams throughout the rest of these 19 picks in between, or 18 picks in between, He was either '16 or '18 because Houston and Terrence, him and Terrence Jones, '16, '18, Houston had both. And so I'm like, all right, well one of these teams in between, y'all see us similar, so like maybe they'll draft me. Like none of them draft. So that's why Royce White pisses me off because I thought we were very, very similar and we worked out against each other a lot. Sometimes he got the best of me, sometimes I got the best of him. But I'm like, we're really similar. He's 16, I can't be 35.

Right, right.

So that was one that pissed me off, but for totally different reason. I didn't really have—

Fight.

Everybody I went up against, I got drafted higher than. So I didn't really have no one that like I looked at and was like, damn, like I should have went over him. Like, 'cause I didn't work out with nobody, like I say, that got drafted higher than me. But when you look at like, and I'm, you know, shout out Epe Udo. —but he gets drafted 6th to the Warriors. What could have been? Steph, me that year, the following year, Klay, the following year after that, you. What could have been? You know what I mean? Like, and I, you know, you gotta think about that shit when—

I wish I was a GM.

I mean, I think it worked out, obviously, me going 10th to Indiana. But when you think about it, it was like, damn, that could have been a crazy— Warriors was on some shit if they did that.

Yeah. And you know what? Everybody always act like they got everything right. One thing, you know, one thing I respect about Bob Myers is Bob say, Draymond, can't be that smart. 'Cause if we were, we would've drafted you 7th when we had the 7th pick. Or even 30th when we had the 30th pick. So Draymond, we can't be that smart. Smart, but we got it right eventually. I appreciate Bob for that. But no, I think—

Who did they grab 7th? Who did y'all draft 7th?

Harrison Barnes.

HB.

Yeah.

Okay.

Harrison Barnes.

Which was a good pickup.

A good pick. And he's had a really good career.

Wait, in Sacramento right now, right?

But they got it wrong because he's not still in Golden State and I am.

Right.

So you got it a little wrong. Now Harrison wasn't a bust, so it doesn't ring off as like wrong. Wrong, right?

Exactly, exactly.

Because like I said, Harrison had a really damn good career, make $300 million. Like, so it's not like you just failed, but you kind of got it wrong though. Just a little bit, just a tad. And then Festus Azili was 30th, which Festus, that's my guy. And Festus got derailed by injuries. Knees, his knees was bad, but he had, Really good. Really good first few years.

We got, sticking on the draft, we got Jaime Jaquez Jr. here, Triple J. Absolutely. Shout out him being drafted 18th, Miami Heat.

You're welcome, Jaime. Yes, sir. Smoke coming soon. Nah, I'm just playing.

Just throw that out there, smoke coming soon. Nah, we wanna, you know, and Wimby obviously, went first this draft, fucking phenom. Meow. 7'5". Talk to me, how would you guard him? 'Cause I tell people like, he's elite, hell of a talent. But some of the shit that I seen, he's not, we're not letting him do that in the NBA.

But you not just dribbling through me like the Harlem Globetrotters. Exactly. I'm sorry, I saw some of that. Like, don't get me wrong. Like you said, he a phenom. I think the kid, number one, one of the best things that could have ever happened to him. Is going to San Antonio. Is the lottery. And you go to San Antonio with Coach Pop, that infrastructure, that's number one gonna teach you how to be a pro. Mm-hmm.

Yep.

So many guys fail just because they never learn how to be professionals.

Right. Right.

And so that's great for him, number one. And then their player development is unmatched, you know? So I think that's huge for him. But some of the stuff, His stuff was just like, I mean, come on, bro.

Yeah.

I can rip it off. I think I'm a good player, like, and special, special talent. Like, to even be able to do some of the stuff he was doing, like, it takes a very special, at that size.

Right.

Very special talent. But like, you gotta press up into him. Like, you can't let him get comfortable. If you let him get comfortable, you lose because you're not blocking his shot. He may not even see your contest. Like he's 7'5" and he shoot the ball up here. He may not even see your contest. So you have to, with a guy like that, I feel you gotta do your work.

Crowd him.

You know what I'm saying? Like I'm crowding him from the time he start running up and down the court. When they get the rebound and they start coming, I'm crowding him. Because I can't let him get to a space where he's comfortable, where he's gonna get to that space and do what he wanna do. You can't. Right. If you do that against talents like that, or, you know, yourself, like if I just let you get to the space where you get to operate in the ball, like good luck. Like ain't nothing you can do to stop that. 'Cause if you lose the ball a little bit with guys like a handle like yours, then you go to reach and get the ball, then you just recover it and you recover it in a way to make somebody look stupid. So like you just can't allow him to get to a place where he's comfortable. So for me, I'm all the way up and pressed up into him from the time he starts running up and down the court.

Yeah. But it's interesting. 'Cause I know he's 7'5", but at the same time, it's like, to me, he's kind of positionless. Like he not gonna put him at the center. Now it's 4 guards down there, you know, 4 perimeter players. So, and the 4 man is athletic as shit. So like, I just, I don't, I see him doing well. I'm not saying he's gonna—

He gotta have him get some wins.

No way at all a bust. He's gonna be a star. But I think in the beginning it's gotta be some type of struggle, just his transition into this game. Like I don't think his trajectory is gonna be this.

Yeah, I don't think that either.

From day one.

I think people are setting him up for failure. Like, oh, he's gonna be an All-Star next year. Like, man, it's hard in this NBA. He said that? Yeah, it's hard. Hard to become an All-Star in this league. Now if he do, like, God be with him.

Yeah. I hope he succeed. I just, I think—

But to say like he's gonna be an All-Star next year as if he don't have to figure this game out, I don't really buy that. I think he will be special, but an All-Star next year, I think that's a bit much. But I'm gonna tell you what I think separates him from most. That will make him pretty special in its own right. Like separate from anything else that he could do, him as a rim protector.

Yeah. Yep.

Yeah. That is what I think most people aren't talking about.

Right.

And I actually think that's what separates him. Because if all else fails, if he get to the league and because he's 7'5", he can't handle it as much as he want, Or because the 3-point line is much further, his shot ain't as good as it's been. True. If all of that fails, him as a rim protector is as elite as we have in the NBA.

'Cause he's a skilled player.

So you already have one thing that already puts you in an elite category. And that is a rim protector.

For sure.

And as we all know, teams are always looking for rim protectors. That's right. You get paid. I mean, there's someone in the NBA getting paid as a rim protector, probably more money than you, P, which is a lot of money.

Another E from France too.

Yeah, he is from France. You know, he gets paid a lot of money. A lot of money as an elite rim protector. And so, I mean, if I'm his agent, I'm walking in right now like, "Hey, RC and Pop, listen." I understand, but we can agree to this max deal right now because clearly rim protecting is gonna get you a max deal.

Right, right.

And he will be so, he's gonna be such an elite rim protector that I think that already separates him. Like that right there alone. Now if you're talking about he's about to break every offense down and I ain't buying that yet. Like he can get to that and he has the skill to do that, but that's gonna take some time. But the rim protection,— he got that. He got that from day one. He got that a lot. And that's special.

'Cause I think he's in a category where we haven't really seen someone be ultra successful. Like we had Porzingis. Porzingis came over, I mean, he was great. He had a great stint, but he didn't really crack that of what he could have been.

Absolutely.

You know, Bobo, he's still young, but he hasn't quite cracked what he could be.

He needs some size.

That size.

Yeah.

So it is, it's a unicorn. Air that he's in.

Not only is it a unicorn, but you also get to a certain height where it becomes a disservice in this league. You know, like there's nothing he can do about being 7'5", but I'm not sure 7'5" suits you better than being 7'1".

Right, right.

Or like being 7 feet.

With his skillset.

With his skillset. Being 7'5" almost does him a disservice. Like yeah, you can catch and fit, but with the skillset that everyone loves about this kid. Being 7'5" almost hurts that. Because once you get to this level, you gonna run up against guys who's way stronger, that moves as fast or faster, and they play way lower to the ground.

Right.

And as you know, low man wins. Right, 100%. And so if you just running up into that, like 7'5" kind of hurts you. And so I think that's something that he's gonna have to adjust to as well that people aren't really accounting for.

He got the right coach.

Like, to your point, ain't many guys over 7'2".

That's been able to do it.

Doing much in this league. Yeah. Like, and Zubac's 7 feet.

But he's like, he's a center. He's like your legit center. Like, Wemby is like a 7'5" 3 man. Like, he's a swing man.

Exactly, he's tall. Ball and can do all that.

Do all of that.

They keep comparing him what, to Kevin Durant, right?

Exactly. But guess what? If he gonna play the 3, guess who's guarding him?

Yeah. And I'm the same approach. I'm climbing into him. Pause.

All right. That was a quick one. I think his height, which everybody's going crazy. I prayed that he doesn't grow anymore because at 18 you could possibly— He still— And that's a disaster for him. But like, I, I, More than anything, I actually worry about his height more than anything.

I don't want him to be a Greg Oden. Or what's the boy?

Greg Oden.

Hope, did I say his name right? From Portland?

Yeah, Greg Oden.

I thought he was gonna be the greatest thing ever. He had commercials early.

Next Shaq.

And then he, what happened?

What if he just, what if he comes over and he's just the next Luka?

Like what if there's a Wimby Magic? He just comes over and it's like, damn, this motherfucker unlocked the game at 7'5".

He does. God bless his soul. God bless San Antonio. Because if he does, I mean—

Then you get in trouble.

Then there's nothing that you can do because you can't teach that.

Right.

Like you can't teach 7'5" with that handle and that skill. And also what appears to me is that he loves the game. I don't know that, I haven't been around him, but it looked like he loved the game. And that's a problem that most 7-footers run into. They play basketball basketball because they're set for feet and not because they love basketball. And it appears to me that he loves the game, which also will work good for him.

'Cause he's always gonna get better. Jackie, you're a big sports fan. How crazy you get with your fandom? Do you ever paint your face before a game?

Now come on, P, no, I ain't painting my face or nothing. I can't do none of that. But I will admit I am wild at the game. I be yelling and acting a fool, doing all that stupid stuff, I do.

Okay, okay. I've seen you go wild. At a couple of my games.

Yep, yep.

You know, so I can vouch for that. And I know you're a big jersey guy. You wear them to every game, right?

That's stupid if you didn't even ask me that, P.

You know, you say you see me at the game wearing jersey. I love jerseys. I love all my jerseys.

You're right.

Football jerseys, baseball jersey, basketball jersey. It don't matter. I love 'em all, P.

Okay.

At this point, I'm gonna start getting one from every guest that we get.

Ah! Ah!

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Talk to me.

We gonna switch it up, baby. Y'all got a big offseason change going on, man. Y'all Warriors done did something that's different now. Y'all done got rid of your boy Jordan Poole and y'all done got CP3, you know? I wanna know, have you talked to CP3 yet or anything?

I have not talked to CP3. I haven't talked to CP yet. He reached out to me a few days ago and I've been, I had just got back from Europe and I've been with my kids the last few days. So I didn't get a chance to talk to him. By the time I get a second to come up for breath, fresh air, it's nighttime and I'm not calling that man phone at nighttime.

Yeah, right, right, right, right.

But I haven't gotten a chance to talk to him, but I am looking forward to it.

What do you think since the trade happened, what do you think he brings to an already stacked and successful team?

Well, I think he brings a couple things. Number one, I thought last year, Steph said it in his postseason, or not postseason, but after the Lakers series, Steph said in his press conference, which was, "We ran out of variety." And what I mean by variety is like, In a team, you need to have a variety. Like if they're taking this away, then you can go to this. They're taking that away, then you can move to this. Our team last year didn't have a variety of ways that we could score. And I think CP adds another thing to the menu to address the topic of a variety of things, of ways to score. Because CP plays totally different than Steph.

Right.

Totally different than Klay.

Right.

Totally different than myself. And even Jordan Poole for that matter.

Right, right.

And so I think what he brings is number one, the variety in which we can play, I think is huge. I also think— He a range shooter too. Last year, Steph and I got split up a lot. And me and Steph together are dangerous.

Meaning y'all minutes.

Absolutely. Our minutes got split up a bunch because our second unit, couldn't figure it out. We couldn't figure the second unit out. So in turn, I got put into the second unit to help stabilize the group. That stagger y'all. And that stack, that's like 15 less minutes a game that we're together. And so I think due to our roster, it took some of that away. Well, now CP can, anchor that unit.

Exactly.

Whether he starts or come off the— I don't know. I haven't had the chance to talk to Steve. I don't know. But I know he will see some time with that unit and he can anchor that unit. And I think that is a big thing into unlocking our team again. And I don't think, you know, I know everyone's been like, oh, well, you know, it's a salary cap dump and he'll come off the books next year. Listen, he will come off the books next year, I think. I don't know his contract situation, but I think he'll come. All right, all of that's fine and dandy. But I'll tell you one more thing that I think it unlocks, and I actually look forward to learning this from him. I think Chris Paul will completely unlock Jonathan Kuminga in his growth.

Mm-hmm.

CP is great with young guys. DeAndre Ayton looked like a bus before CP came to Phoenix. Facts. No disrespect to Aiden.

Facts.

More so a nod to CP.

Yeah. Like— More of a threat.

People didn't know what they were like, what DeAndre Aiden was gonna turn out to be. And then CP went there and all of a sudden DeAndre Aiden became an all-star level player.

Right.

And so I think what he will do for Jonathan Kaminga and unlocking Kaminga is huge.

Amazing.

Absolutely huge. And I look forward to learning that from him. He's always been incredible at mentoring young guys. And that is an area that I've wanted to grow in because it's one that I kind of got thrusted into. In 2019, obviously we lost in the finals and then KD left and Klay got hurt and then Steph got hurt 2 games. And I was just kind of thrust at our, all of Sean got traded away. Andre got, Sean retired. Andre got traded. Draymond Green traded away. All our vets left. So all of a sudden I went from like the young guy on the team to like year 8 of thrown into the fire of like being this mentor. You the vet. And like, I've always been a mentor. That's what it is. But being a vet is a totally different thing than being a mentor.

Right.

And so then I just start trying to learn how to be a vet on the fly. And to have someone there that I can continue to watch and learn from. So I'm actually looking forward to, because I know that that's something that I need to continue to, an area that I need to continue to grow in.

I wanna see it. I can't wait. It'll be interesting.

Yeah. I mean, you spoke on the vet and leadership and the young guys aspect. Do you take that role initially when guys, when y'all draft and y'all got a new guy coming in, Jordan Poole situation, Kaminga situation, Wiseman situation, you take that role, is that shared, of getting those young guys on board for that championship mentality?

I definitely try to take on the role. I'm not gonna act like I do it all myself 'cause Steph's great. But Steph leads in his own way.

Mm-hmm.

Klay leads in his own way. Klay isn't gonna say much to you at all. He'll show you things, he'll show you how to work. If you go to him with a question, he'll answer it, but he's not just gonna be, out.

Not the vocal guy.

And so I try to take on a lot of that role. I think for me it was easier initially because we didn't have many young guys. Then we ended up with a ton of young guys and trying to figure out like, all right, like who, how many guys do you take on? How much time can you give? Like I got kids, I got a wife, like podcasts and businesses that I'm working on, basketball, obviously.

Right, right. Right.

So trying to balance that and figure out how much time and like how much to go in, how much to sit back, you know? And so I try to take on like a lot of that role and a huge part of it, but I'm not gonna sit here and act like I do it all myself.

Right.

I think we try to do it by committee. You know, obviously some guys you take a liking to more than others. Some guys gravitate to you more than others.

Right. Right.

And it kind of just naturally actually ends up taking its shape. But it's something that I've actually tried to be more aware of. And what I've tried to understand, AV, who's one of our assistant coaches, helped me understand last year is like, I felt like I was struggling with Kaminga a bit and not struggling, more so struggling like, what am I doing wrong? Not necessarily what he's doing wrong, but what am I doing wrong? What am I doing wrong? And A.V., who has a great relationship with him, told me, he said, "Do you know him?" That's a deep question. And I was like, "Huh." "Do you know him?" Like, that's interesting. Because now that you say that, I start thinking about what it means to know someone. I don't know him. Yet I'm trying to lead him. And that's something that Coach Izzo taught me as a freshman. Draymond, how can you lead somebody If you don't know them, you don't spend any time with them off the court, you don't know what makes them tick or this, how you gonna lead them? And I was like, "Ha, I gotta get to know this kid." And now I understand, okay, I need to continue to do that. Like you can't get so lost in life.

Right.

To where you stop doing those things that I know create success, especially in leading be mentoring and being that vet for someone. Those are the things you have to do. So it really opened my eyes and I've been trying to do a much better job with that, checking in on him, hoping to get together with him this summer. But I can say like that caused some of our issues, trying to lead guys and not knowing them.

Mm-hmm.

I lost some of that.

Mm-hmm.

And had to get it back. That's interesting.

That goes to the phone conversation where we're always asked, everybody that's in the NBA, like the players that's from Michigan always ask and always bring you up. Do you stay in contact with any—

Oh, like Michigan State guys?

Michigan State players that's in the NBA. And I'm like, do y'all got a group chat or anything? And are you in it and all that? But yeah, obviously you working on that.

Yeah. Absolutely. And like, by the way, I'm definitely way more involved in our Michigan State Michigan State group chat. I actually kind of keep that thing going. These young Jaren and Denzel and—

Jaren said you are the leader of that chat.

Oh, for sure.

He did say that.

I keep that chat going for sure. Because I think it's important, right? Like number one, it's important to, like, I, as I said, I bleed green. Like I love Michigan State through and through.

You go back every summer.

Absolutely. I rock with Michigan State coaches. I love that program. Do anything for the program. And also that's what the OGs showed me. You know, like Mateen Cleaves, Travis Walton. Like that's what they showed me. Like, yo, when you, all right, now you move on, you have to keep this going and you pass it down to the next guy and then they have to keep it going. And I would say I've probably struggled a little bit with passing it down. The fact that I'm still leading the group chat, Jared, Xavier. Xavier. 'Cause you know, some, somebody help, you know, but I try to make it a point to make sure, A, all these guys continue to come back. And so I do like a grind week where we go in for like 3, 4 days. We work out, we lift, we work out, we play, and then we kick it with the young fellas, you know, later on in the day, in the evening, we go out at night, we kick it.

Mm-hmm.

And I try to keep that going because I, I remember and understand how vital that was for me. Like one day I'm, you know, I'm on campus and Mo Kleeze there, Moe Pete there, Zach Randolph, Shannon Brown, Maurice Ager. Like the list goes on. And like to see all of those guys on campus, it was huge for me.

Man.

You know, so I try to make sure that I keep that going. So I stay active in the group chat and then I'm always giving them shit too. Or like if Jaren do something in the game, Miles, Miles game me a couple years ago. I went to the group chat right away like, "Yo, Miles game me." Because I know if I didn't and somebody else saw it first, it would've been hell to pay. But no, I really try to keep that going. But I do need to do a better job of that.

Right, right.

With Golden State. You know, like that's something that, you know, I used to do a lot of and then, you know, life happens and I kind of lost. Touch, if you will. And I think in turn it hindered me as a leader. And it's something that I've made a conscious effort to try to start back to.

I wanna touch on a little bit of that subject as well on the mentor standpoint, 'cause that's something that I had to grow with. My first couple years in Indiana, naive to the business part of it, super close to my teammates. Tight to them. Like that was my brothers. I didn't have a wife at the time. I didn't have a girl at the time, no kids at the time. So they were my family. Then they get traded, guys get traded, George get traded, Roy leaves, D. West leaves. Like then it was like, damn. Like it hurt me to the point of it's like, I don't even wanna get close to people like that again. You know what I mean? Yeah. So I struggled. On that mentorship aspect. And then when they got Myles Turner in, I apologized to Myles a couple years after I was removed from Indy. I apologized to him like, "Bro, I'm sorry I wasn't the vet I needed to be for you." 'Cause at that point, the direction the team was going with people that I brought to them, "Let's go after him, let's go after them," they weren't hearing me out. So I was kind of like one foot in, one foot out. I don't know what I'm doing here. So then when I go to Oklahoma, I'm like a rental there, you know what I mean? So it was still like, you know, I had the relationship with Russ, I had a relationship with Steve-O, Jermy I had a relationship with, like those were my core guys. But the young guys, I felt like I didn't really allow myself to open up how I wanted to. And then fast forward now we're here, that's where I kind of rekindled that again of like, all right, I gotta take these guys, I gotta open up, I gotta be more of a mentor, a big brother, and give game back. You know what I mean?

Absolutely.

So man, shout out to you for taking that approach. And this is why I love you, bro. Like you one of the realest to just realize in life, bro, and what comes at you through that. I just wanted to highlight that. But you know, as we move forward, technically you're a free agent. But you, Steph, Klay, having probably one of the longest tenures in the league, did y'all, y'all being together, did y'all know it was something special right away? And then I wanna compare y'all relationships from then when y'all were starting it out to where y'all relationship now is as brothers now. Y'all been through so much. Y'all won together. What was y'all relationship from then and now?

Man, you know, it was funny. Like, I think about our relationship of where it was now. Like, the first time I ever talked to Steph was me telling him congratulations after I got drafted. He had just had Riley, his oldest daughter. So like, my first conversation ever with him was just like, yo, what's up, bro? Got your number from E. Congratulations. Like, I heard you just had a baby. Congratulations. Klay, we actually played summer league together. 'Cause he played two games. Oh, okay. My rookie year, he played the first two games of summer league. Right. And it's funny to see where our relationship started off because we were all the young guys on the team. And so we actually, along with Harrison Festus, we actually all had a bond initially. But it was funny because it wasn't like a bond made on the court. Like it was a bond made on like, we're the young guys with David Lee, Carl Andrew, Jared Jack, Richard Jefferson, Brandon Rush. We're like this young guys that they're all looking at like, "Man, get y'all young ass outta here." Right. And so we bonded just on being the young guys. It happened so fast, like our ascension, because I mean, hey, you know, It got sped up with David Lee getting hurt. But we just started playing so well together. And I think our skill sets fit so well together. But never was it like a thought of like, yo, man, we special together. You know, like, it's just like, yo, we like, damn, we could be really good.

Right.

Oh man. Like, all right, we fitting together and all this is flowing. Like, we could be really good. And in my third year, that's when we won the first championship in 2005. 2015, but like even then, like I started the first 16, 17 games because David Lee was out. Then he came back and Steve kept it that way. And that's when it was like, ah, this is interesting. Like they rolling with us.

Mm-hmm.

Then we win a championship and it's like, whoa, I'm in year 3, Klay's in year 4, Steph's in year 6. Like, man, we may be able to like, Run a few more.

Who this? Wow.

Right. You know, like, hey, this is interesting. This the one. To say that we thought or knew that we would be special together though, I think that's something we just realized. You know, like, because when you in it, it's hard to see. You know, like it's hard to look and be— Now what I did know is like, yeah, I don't think nobody could beat us. You know what I'm saying? Like us three together, nobody can beat us. But it still wasn't like, yo, this is something special. Like we got something special. It was just like, nah, like we nice and like nobody can beat us. As of late, I say over the last couple years, you really realize like, yo, we really have a special thing. Like we not fighting over attention. We not fighting over you make more money than me or I make more money than him. We not fighting over none of that. Like we really enjoy being together. Mm-hmm. And like, Bob really helped me realize that. Bob, every time he would come walking by me, Steph, and Klay, we sit at the same table and he would just walk by and laugh like it's so funny to me. 10 years later, you guys still sit together.

Hilarious.

Like on the plane.

Yeah.

And when he first said it, I was just like, hmm?

Duh.

That's what I'm supposed to say.

Right.

But then I started to think about it and really process what he was saying. And I'm like, I'm like, "Ah, I get what he's saying now." Like, not only are we still together 10 years later, but we actually enjoy spending time with each other 10 years later. Like, we enjoy each other so much that on every flight we sit together and talk. That's crazy. And kick it. And like, that's when I started to notice that especially, 'cause basketball is cool, right? Like, we've won, that's great. Like, don't take that for granted. But like what makes it special is like, these my brothers. You know what I'm saying? Like these are guys who like, go to war with.

Right.

And these are guys that when we're done playing, I'll still see, I'll still keep in contact with. Like, you know, I'm going through free agency right now. And like, you know, you hear this and you hear that and just updating them on like my thoughts, like every step of the way I update them like, yo, 'Cause I don't want it to get down to a point to where if I was to leave, that A, because you just can't control news anymore. Like it's impossible to control news.

That's getting out.

Like it's getting out. And so A, if I leave, that it's just like, wham. Hey fellas, just FYI, I'm gone. Or—

Lead the chat.

It come across, like your phone, and I don't get the chance to tell you. You know? And so I'm like in touch with them like a couple times a week right now, just kind of letting them know my mindset, what I'm thinking, what I'm hearing. You know, just, you know, you hear things and like, can't negotiate yet, but what I'm thinking, because I don't want it, I don't want it to come down to that if I'm not offered the offer that I think I should get, or I'm offered better somewhere else and I like that situation more, at this point in time in my life, I don't want it to come down to like, it's just some abrupt thing and like we haven't talked in weeks and now I'm hitting you up just to tell you I'm going. So I've been like updating them too, like every step of the way over the last couple weeks about just what I'm hearing, you know, what some of the possibilities may be, just to keep them in the loop. That's our relationship.

Mm-hmm.

And that's what makes it special.

Mm-hmm.

You know, it's like I feel indebted to them for them to know where I'm at, where my mind's at. Like one day I'm like—

That's dope.

Bro, like I can't wait for us. And then another day I'm like, I don't know, man. Like we'll see how it turns out. I really don't know.

Yeah, right.

You know, but like, I think that's probably the best way I can sum our relationship up. You know, it's like I'm indebted to those guys forever.

You know what I'm like? Yeah, y'all linked forever.

You know, like they're my brothers. Like you can never mention me and not mention them. You can't mention them and not mention me. Me, like we tied together forever. And I think that's what makes it special. Like, yeah, winning championships is great, but like to be connected in such a positive light with two guys for the rest of my life, like I couldn't have chosen two better people to have my name attached to for the rest of my life. Like special, special, special dudes, man.

Shout out, shout out Steph, shout out Klay, man.

Speaking, to keep it on Steph, we know how we always hear about his insane work ethic that he has. What is something that you can tell us about him that showcases how, to showcase how dedicated he is to his craft? 'Cause we always see him do the routine that he do before the game and all that. But what's something that you've seen that you can tell us?

I think the change that I've watched him make as far as the weight room goes over the last 3 or 4 years, years or so speaks to his work ethic and who he is. Because if Steph doesn't get stronger post-2020, he's still Steph Curry and he's still shooting the piss out the ball. But him getting as strong as he got has actually changed his game. It's actually made him much more effective. Like you can't run him off his spot. You can't just bump him and he's falling over. He's getting to where he wants to go.

Mm-hmm.

And so I think, I think his dedication in the weight room, and when I say dedicated, that man is in the weight room every single day.

So he getting buff right now.

He in the weight room after shootaround, he in the weight room before the game, he doing a full lift after the game.

Wow.

Like he in the weight room before practice.

Dedication to his craft.

He in the weight room after practice, every single day. Wow.— to watch his transformation in mindset. Like, yes, his body is transformed, but his transformation in mindset towards the weight room. Like, I remember the days we all would walk past like, man, I'm not going in there today. Like, how can I fucking slide around the weight room today? Like, I remember all the days of us having those conversations.

Right, right.

Hey, you lifting today?

Uh-huh.

I don't know about today. All right, I ain't lifting either.

I get extra shots today. I ain't going in there.

Outta the weight room. Exactly. You know, and so to watch him make that transformation just speaks volumes to him as a competitor, his work ethic. And then also like in watching him work out, like he gonna work out as long as he has to, to accomplish whatever it is that he set out to accomplish that day. Like you watch this dude work out, man. Like there's times where like a significant part of his workout, He can't shoot a shot unless he could run a full court sprint. A shot. And now you imagine, we all know like how great of a shooter Steph is.

Right.

Okay, so we can all imagine the amount of shots you have to shoot to be that great. He can't shoot a shot without running full court.

That's crazy.

That's crazy.

Yeah, that's crazy.

What? Like, I'm sorry, but. What? One shot? You gotta run all the way. And like, he getting up a ton of shots and he doing though, he getting his work in at a very, very like respectable timeframe. It ain't like, you know, sometimes you see him out there, he'd be out there for an hour and a half after practice and you like, bro, he's still out there? Yeah. But he getting his stuff done because we all know the most important thing to Steph in his life is his family. So he getting his stuff done and getting out that gym. But the workout, man, it takes somebody 2.5 hours to do a workout he do in 30 minutes. And it's just running, running, running. I'm like, bro.

I heard a story. I honestly don't know the player that, the source was referring to, but I heard there's a story and the person said it was a high-level NBA player that went to work out with Steph. 10 minutes into the workout, dude taps out and throws up. Couldn't finish the workout with Steph.

I've heard this about a couple guys.

I don't even know who the person is. I wanna know who the, who that—

I've heard this about a couple guys, so I'm not, I'm not gonna put their name out there because I don't know which one is true or not. And I never confirmed it with him. But if you guys ever have me back on the show, I'm gonna go confirm exactly who it was now because I really wanna know.

We gonna bring you on just because of that.

I wanna know the first name that I heard, if that was the right name.

Yeah.

But I've heard this about a couple guys. But what I will tell you is like, when people work out with him, like I watch him dumb his workout down. Like when guys will go, —just 'cause they know that— I'm gonna go work out with Steph. We go down there today. Like, and I watch him like dumb his workout down.

Yeah.

Like he dumb his workout down often.

Yeah.

Like if guys gonna come work out.

Come work out with him. 'Cause you can't. That's insane.

Like you can't.

That's insane.

Nah, you, his man.

So yeah, he legendary, bro. Legendary. So Klay's my guy. We played AAU together with our our other co-host Dallas Rutherford. Shout out Dallas who can't be here. He got diagnosed with ugliness.

So he's missing.

So he getting that shit fixed. 'Cause you know, you go to Atlanta to get shit done anyway. So he had to go to Atlanta.

He went to Atlanta, got diagnosed with ugly, got surgery tomorrow.

At least you handling it. You're handling it, Dallas. That's all they can complain about. We love you and miss you, Dallas.

But speaking on Klay, other than him being one of the greatest shooters, ever in the league. He's also a really fun guy and funny personality to be around. Can we get like a Klay being Klay moment that you could share?

There's a million of those. Klay, I think one of the things that I enjoy most and that we get great laughs out of is like, like I told you, we all sit at this table together. Like David Lee used to sit at the table. And so the first time I really saw it happen was then, but I've seen it happen a million times since. We're all sitting at the table and we're talking about White House visit. We're going to DC this trip. We got the White House visit and we going 35-minute conversation, jit conversation about this trip and like what it's gonna be like and what's going on. I say 10 minutes after the conversation and this long flight, He was like, "Hey guys, y'all heard we going to the White House, right?" He just talking about the White House.

Completely tuned out the whole convo.

And we was just like— Like, what? We looked at each other like, "Yo, we just talked about this." 35 minutes. 35 minutes we just talked about this. And like, you come in asking us a question about the— I can just answer all your questions and more. And like he had those moments all the time and where you just realize like he's in his own world.

He'll be on autopilot, bro. He in his own world.

He ain't thinking of the White House.

At all. Like, and by the— not only is he not thinking of the White House, he ain't thinking about nothing y'all talking about around him. Like he is in his own world and he does that like fairly often. And I think like when he does it, like that's Klay being Klay. Like you always hear people say, "Man, that dude live in his own world." That's Klay. Klay really does. Like he really lives in a world. Sometimes I envy it. Like I wanna be in that world that you in, like where none of this stuff matters because I clearly care about too much. Like none of this matters to you. And he just like go and floats and like does his thing.

He just quiet all day. With that story you told us, seem just like what Klay do, 'cause that's how he looks when you see him on TV.

What you see is what you get.

That's really what, like, uh, we going to the White House tomorrow. What?

What you see is what you get.

That's crazy.

And I think that's like—

Comfortable in his own skin.

Personality is just like— Yeah.

I don't know.

'Cause I peeped that, like, and me being, we played AAU, so I was late to the AAU scene. I didn't know much about it. I knew who Michael Thompson was and I knew, oh, okay, he was a Laker. Like, so I had this, you know, view of who Klay was just based off of like who his dad was. All right. Like kid grew up rich, a lot different than how I grew up. Like, but he was just like, so like down to earth and just like, I peeped it then. He's just in his own world. Like he stuck to what he does. Absolutely. And we got close. On the USA shit. 'Cause you know, we would play FIFA and shit and we would bet and I owed him money.

How much you owe him, B?

He beat me.

How much you owe him?

I owed him.

You're not supposed to lose at 3.

We was playing for $1,000.

You did.

Yeah, yeah.

You gotta get that back.

He beat me.

I watched Klay losing chess to Ty Jerome all year. By the way, after he started beating Ty, Ty just started playing, 3 weeks later he couldn't win. You can't beat me in dominoes. I've taken plenty money.

So that's what y'all playing on the plane?

Dominoes. I mean, we play bourrée.

Okay.

You cold at that?

I mean, I wouldn't necessarily say cold. It's the luck of the draw, but I beat Klay.

Yeah.

Often.

Who's y'all foursquare?

Us three and Ty. Ty Jerome.

Okay.

And we had a great game. But yeah, man, you ain't supposed to be losing to Klay.

He beat me, bro. And I was nice. I thought he was good.

I thought Klay was good at FIFA. He gonna be so pissed that I'm saying this right now. And I'm happy.

Why is that?

Say it.

That he's boo-boo?

Say it.

Yeah, because he get pissed every time I say it. That's why I keep saying it.

On the Blu-ray and Domino's?

Anything. Like, oh, Klay can't win.

Come on.

He gets so mad. So I can't wait for him to see this. He competitive.

So I've been on Jackie ass, bro.

What?

On Looney. It's time for Looney.

Huh?

Looney. Looney?

He don't appreciate Loon. He don't appreciate Loon. Appreciate Loon.

And I was trying to kick game to him, bro. Like when you watch Looney play, he does so much shit that is so valuable to the team. And he don't, it don't click for him. Like the casual fan, it doesn't click for him. Pick for you.

Literally like the dude that got picked before you, to me. The dude that got picked before you and you was like—

that's what I see in Looney sometimes, but obviously I'm wrong. Loon is way cooler. You see Loon, like, Loon got swag.

I think Loon just got his swag because I used to see his swag before he got his swag, and it wasn't the swag that he got.

And you know what's funny too, he always has swag. Now, he didn't always dress well. Yeah, there we go. But swag and dressing well is Totally different.

Totally different thing.

But you know what's funny too?

What?

I saw Looney highlights.

Looney, I didn't know Looney could move the way he moved, dog. Didn't he used to be a point guard? Pretty much.

Yeah. And he grew. Yeah. But he used to be a point, but I saw his highlights, bro. And I'm like, dog, he had a handle. He had step back shit, like dunking on cats.

Again.

It's just crazy how the NBA will change your game.

That's another guy, by the way, who I respect. Obviously it's my young fella, but I respect, to your point, his game like does not resemble his game. If you understand what I'm saying.

I'm just glad you're on the same page as me on this. I'm just glad that we here.

No, we not on the same page. What page are we not on?

Damn.

But I'm saying like— A little bit what he said. His game and what it is right now, does not resemble his game at all from what it was. But look at the hand he was dealt. You come in, before he ever played an NBA game, he had 2 hip surgeries. Major hip surgeries, not like—

Mm-hmm.

Like major hip reconstruction surgeries.

Mm.

I think to date he's had 3 hip surgeries, a bunch of other stuff. And to like become the player that he's become and like 20 rebounds 3 times in a fucking playoff series. That wasn't his game. To then retool everything that you did to get to who he's become, I think is insane. And no one, like most people don't acknowledge it. Most people don't give credit. But I know your thing, your thing is probably like he moved this way and like you can't see it. Something funny out there.

I'm just looking for a little swag out here.

I get it.

That's all I'm looking for. I tell you what, I tell you what, there's nobody that you gonna wanna be in a foxhole with more that's riding. And I mean riding, ain't backing down from nobody. He gonna show up every night. You know what you gonna get every night. He gonna rebound the basketball, he gonna set screens, he gonna put back, If he get an offensive rebound, don't be looking for no kickout. That's his time to get his shit off and try to get any look up he can. He doing that. But like, you know what you gonna get every single night. And I think the best compliment I can give him is he is the most professional person, player, you name it, I have ever worked with. Never late. Mm. Never give anyone anything to be mad about, upset, complain about. Doesn't complain about anything. Does his job plus some. The training staff, again, to get back from where he had to come from with all the surgeries and all of that, like the routine he goes through just to get on the court. Think what, Loon, 26, 27? Is as such of a routine that I go through at 33. Mm-hmm. To get my body ready. He's been doing that for 5 years. To get a 22-year-old to dive into a routine—

Right.

That's not basketball.

Right.

Just to get on the floor and then be dedicated to where no one has to say a word to them. A single word. He's going to go through his routine every single day. It can be an hour. He's going to do it. Get there early enough, all of those things to do everything that he needs to do. Get there at 8 o'clock in the morning. He does this stuff, yoga. It's like yoga or something.

Yoga?

Like— What is yoga? Does it every single day.

I don't even know what that is.

What's the J? It's like yoga. I know the oga. But it's like, I think it's, I've never done it, but it's like yoga with a twist where it's a little more active. And like, I think the lady who does it, name starts with a J. So she named it Yoga. Yoga.

Hilarious.

That's about as much as I can get. But like every single day, game day, he doing it. Like just the preparation, professional.

Yeah.

The only professional that I've ever been with that's as professional, and it's saying a lot about him 'cause he's only in his second year, just finished his second year, is Moses Moody. Draymond Green. And the other one outside of those two is David West. Like professional of all professionals. I've never seen anybody like— Shout out D-West. D-West, that's your OG. That's my OG as well. Like D-West taught me so much, but like those two guys remind me so much of D-West. Obviously not as outspoken, not as, you know, D-West is one of the one of the most thoughtful and smartest human beings I've ever been around.

Ever.

But from a professional standpoint, guy don't miss a beat.

I'm off Looney now. He my favorite.

Don't miss a beat.

He gotta be your favorite. He my favorite.

He gotta be your favorite. Don't miss a beat.

He my favorite.

I love Looney.

He my boy.

He my boy every night. Yeah. I love his approach just on, 'cause like he could have very well and very easily, and it happens all the time when a team is successful and, when you're taken out of the lineup and it's like, wait a minute, I've won with you guys. Like, how could you take me out of the lineup? But yet he did that, no complaint, and he still goes out there and dominates in his role. Like, shout out Loon. I thought that was special that he could do that.

Shout out to Looney.

Yeah, very special.

Shout out Looney.

'Cause that's hard to do. You winning, take you out the lineup and it's like, bro, what?

And it's always him, right?

Mm-hmm. Odd man out.

None of us get taken outta the lineup. It's always him. No matter how well he's playing, if they feel that a lineup change, because I can move to the 5, they feel like a lineup change needs to happen, it's always him. And like, I get it, you know, like a part of it. Like I understand the business of it and like all of that. Like I get it. Like you're not taking Steph out, you're not taking Klay out, not taking Wiggins out, not taking me out. So I get it. When I came back from the suspension this playoffs, And we won game 3 or game, yeah, game 3. Wanna say it was game 3 I was suspended for?

You've been suspended a lot. I don't know. Gotta think.

It's okay.

Just, I gotta think.

It works.

Yeah.

It works for me.

Help us out. Help us out. You probably know.

Game 3.

Game 3.

I was suspended and I came back for game 4. Okay. And what I noticed in that game though, was that we were very successful with only one big on the floor. And so like, what's gonna happen, right? Like we know one big's gonna be on the floor. So I'm gonna come back game 4 and what's gonna happen? Moe's gonna get taken outta star lineup because we only going one big on the floor.

Mm-hmm.

And I went to Coach Offer's right after the game. Like I was suspended so I couldn't be on the property and I drove to to the arena after the game. And like, I went straight to his office and I'm like, "Yo, I'll come off the bench. Like, bring me off the bench." And he's like, "Well, I haven't thought about that or considered it, but why do you say that?" And I'm like, "Well, I just watched the whole game. Like, one big on the floor worked. And Loon just had 23 rebounds." Mm-hmm. So his reward for 23 rebounds and us actually winning this first game of this series that we, I mean, it was the third game, but our first win, His reward is gonna be, "All right, 23 rebounds and we just won. You go to the bench." You go to the bench. Like what message is A that sending to him, but also to the rest of the team? It's like you played that well, you dominate a game like that. And just because I'm coming back, you now go to the bench? Like, oh, there's your prize. And so I actually went to him like, "Yo, bring me off the bench." Because like, that's not right. Like, this guy's playing great. But to your point, he wouldn't have said a word. He would've just been like, "All right, like, I'll be ready when my number is called." And like, that's why like a guy like that, man, you go to war with that guy any day of the week. Like, there's not many guys in this league that I would pick over Kawhi Leonard. You know what you getting every time he come.

I'm gonna leave him alone. Special.

Leave him alone.

That's my favorite player now. My favorite player. I got a question for both of y'all. All right, now after the Joker won the championship, he has something to say about comparing the NBA to a job. And he said, "Nobody likes they job. If they do, they lying." So how much do you guys view the NBA as a job? You can answer first, Draymond, 'cause you the guest, baby.

I'll answer first. I might take PG answer a little bit, but I'll tell you, I hate it. I love playing basketball and I love to compete, but he's not lying. I hate it. And I don't wanna sound like someone who takes it for granted because as you can see, every time I step on the floor, like I'm going, like I don't take it for granted at all.— But like, to Joker's point, it's work. Mhm. Like, and you have to show up to work every day and perform despite what could be going on at work.

Mhm.

What can be going on at home.

Yeah.

What can be going on in the world. You have to show up and perform.

Yeah.

And it's work. Guess what? Just like, People see you in acting and they're like, "Man, I wanna be an actor 'cause you on TV." There's so much bullshit that comes with it.

Beyond.

Like so much.

Beyond.

The politics of it.

Beyond.

It's awful. It's the same thing with us. It's so much bullshit that come with it and the politics. But I wouldn't trade my job for another job in the world. You know, like I'm very appreciative. Of it. And I love that I get to do that job.

Yeah.

For a living. Like I've loved basketball since I was 2 years old. I actually get to do that for a living and feed my family. It's incredible. I don't take it for granted one bit. But the job I hate.

Right. Right.

I absolutely hate it.

I say the same thing. And you gotta think about it. And I tell people this, Like not many fields you can do without loving. Like basketball, you have to love playing basketball every single day. 'Cause otherwise you go on the court and your job is to be productive. Like your job is to produce. Like when you're on that floor, your job is to be efficient. No other field, like, well, there's other fields. Like I'm not saying no other fields. Right, right, right. If you bring in acting, Like you have to love to act or else that scene is gonna be awful.

Gonna be awful. You can tell it all in your face.

You can tell, right? So like you have to love what you do and you can get lost in the shit that lead up to it. The treatment, you might not love treatment. You might not be a treatment guy.

Right.

But you know, that's part of—

Part of the process.

The process. And so you, it could get lost into, to damn, I don't even wanna play basketball today 'cause I gotta do this. This is hurting me, so I gotta do treatment. I gotta lift after practice. Like, fuck, now, like, it's a job. I gotta go on a 2-week trip. Like, we gotta try, like, it's a lot that goes into it. But I do think, like, what Draymond said, when it comes to being inside of that rectangle, you love it. It's what you do. It's the reason you do it. It is because you love what you do.

You gotta love what you do.

Everything outside of that shit, it is a job. You putting on a hard hat and you clocking in and you gotta clock out. Yeah.

Like—

Hey, you ready over there, Rook?

I always tell people—

You ready, baby?

I always tell people like, when people like, you know how you get random guys that's like, "Oh man, I'm better than him. I could play in the NBA." Right, right. And I always tell people two things. Number one, is you couldn't handle the stress of just knowing that you woke up this morning at 9:00 AM or 8:00 AM and you got a game at 7:00 PM. You couldn't handle the stress of an NBA game day. Everything that you do from 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM has to be conducive to being your best at 7 o'clock. Mm-hmm. 8:00 AM on.

Exactly.

Everything you do. You know how stressful that is?

Right.

Beyond. Stressful as hell. Beyond. And so I tell people that, like, you couldn't deal with the stress. Oh, and by the way, you're talking about, "I could play in the NBA, whatever, that's easy." You're right. The game is the easy part. Like, when we actually get out there at 7:00 and play the game, yeah, I'm in heaven now. Like, this is what—

Right, finally.

I do love to do this.

Right. Right.

Like competing, playing basketball. Oh, bet your bottom dollar, I absolutely love this.

Right.

That's the easy part. Right. But making it there. And I ain't just talking about the game day no more. There's so many things and steps that you have to do to make it to that game. Including live right.

Mm-hmm. That's true.

Like, so to make it there, It's nearly impossible. Like you think about the amount of times people go through a day and they fuck something up. You wouldn't make it to the game.

Right.

Like actually making it there.

Right.

And so—

It's a different world. I always tell people that.

I dig it.

But I do, and another tidbit for you, Jaime, I think what made it easier for me is getting into a routine. That's what, 'cause then like I'm a person that does well with, knowing what I have to do. Everything mapped out.

Yeah.

I don't like a chaotic schedule where this is being thrown on me now and this is being thrown on me now. So what I got good at is just having a routine. I know at this time I'm doing this. I know at that time I'm getting stretched. I know at this time I'm getting shots, like, and everything, I try to stick to that shit on a daily basis. And that's what make the whole shit easy because you get lost in, You get lost in it.

NBA is a hell of a job. That's why I just play it on 2K to score. I'm gonna stick with that and get my, the way it is, you know.

Who win 2K when y'all play?

I done beat, don't say nothing. I done beat you before in 2K.

You heard that. You heard that before.

So that mean he better. Yeah.

All right. You heard that.

You answered it.

No, no, no.

It's okay.

I'm glad I ain't have to play.

You can't be better if you only played a few times. So we don't know who better.

—though.

You only won one.

Anyways, look— Beat you before.

Anyways, I'm gonna go right into this.

Hold on yourself.

I'm always around this ugly boy over here. Always around him, man. What I don't get when I see between y'all NBA players, this dude got a lot of NBA friends. Like tight.

They cool.

You got a good best friend, it seems like, in the NBA that go by, "He on my team too." LeBron James. And, uh— Y'all get brought up a lot, you know what I'm saying? About how close y'all is, especially during the playoffs and all this stuff. I wanna know, it's for you though. I wanna know how do y'all keep that competitive edge even though this your homie, y'all doing handshakes, you at his birthday parties and all this stuff, but then y'all gotta play. How you keep that edge, man?

Well, I think number one, when you step on the court, there's no friends. Like I think, here's what I will say, as I've gotten older in my career, I don't just go out on the court with the I hate you mindset.

Okay.

And I used to go out with the I hate you mindset to everybody, like, and not be able to, like, separate the two, you know? As I've gotten older in my career, I can separate the two. Number one, I'm not really going out on the court with an I hate you mindset to anyone anymore because, like, Like you just have to mature from that, you know? And so like, that's one thing that I've learned that I had, like, don't get me wrong, like I can tap into that, but like it's cool to tap into that every now and then.

Right.

Not just going out there like I fucking hate the world.

Right, right.

Because for years, like I rallied on that, you know? Like I would use that as like fuel to like go out and destroy somebody. Just like this, I hate you mindset. And in turn, like I ruined relationships. Relationships and shit, like with guys that I had relationships with. Draymond Green. And that didn't feel good either, you know? And so trying to find a balance of you're standing in the way of something that I'm trying to get and something that I'm trying to do. And yet knowing that this is basketball and I'm gonna lead this basketball court and what happens on this basketball court should probably stay on this basketball court. But there becomes a line that you get to when you cross that line and it no longer stays there, it's now off the basketball court. And that's the line that I've tried to learn not to cross. As far as us being as tight as we are, like, that's my big brother, love him to death. And ain't nothing changing that. Like, our relationship is what it— I mean, the only thing changing it is our relationship continues to grow.

Right.

And it is what it is. And people gonna complain about like, "Oh man, y'all friends and you on the court." But like, best of friends work at Google and Apple.

Right.

Like, best of friends, one of 'em work at Twitter and one of 'em work at Facebook.

Right. It happens everywhere.

But they ain't, but like, somebody work at McDonald's and somebody work at Taco Bell.

Right, exactly.

But it's not an issue. You know, it's like, oh, that's cool. But because ours is on display in front of the world, —then it's like, "Oh, it's an issue." Mm-hmm. What I'm here to tell people is you probably shouldn't concern yourself with that because it's nothing you can do about it and it doesn't affect your life.

Mm-hmm.

Even if I go out and lose this game, it don't affect your life unless you decided to put money on it and that's your issue.

Mm-hmm.

And even if I go win this game, doesn't really affect your life.

Mm-hmm.

And so to worry about what I do outside of that, you probably should save yourself the time and invest it elsewhere. Because if you invest— what I do know is if you invest time in said thing, you get better at that thing. And that thing then does more for you than you're necessary. Like, I've invested so much time in the basketball. Basketball now does more for me than I do for the game of basketball.

Mm-hmm.

So if you can invest your time in said thing, you can possibly be great at something. So you probably shouldn't invest your time in wondering about our relationship. But yeah, how I separate the two though, is like, at the end of the day, I'm trying to win these basketball games and I'm trying to win these championships. And if you stand in the way of that, you stand in the way of that. And we gonna battle and like, I'll take your head off. And like, to this day, I still take Bron's head off, no problem. Like when we on the court and he's still gonna take mine off. Try to take my head off, no problem when we on the court. But like—

Call him after the game.

There is a respect and a love that's there that no basketball is gonna change. No game is gonna change. No series is gonna change. Like that love and that respect and that brotherhood is there. And ain't none of this changing that. And if you wanted to, or if you hoped it would, or if you think it does, I'm sorry. But I'm not, sorry. But yeah.

It is what it is.

None of these things aren't changing that. Like outside of this basketball game, there is a life that we have and a life that we live. And the one thing that, and what we've built will go far beyond these next 3, 4 years or however long I'm playing or he's playing. Like it'll go far beyond that. And so to think that like we're gonna go out there, like I used to be mad disrespectful on the basketball court. I did, I was young and like, sue me. Like, I'm sorry. Like to those that I disrespected, I'm sorry.

Yeah.

Like, but that's what I knew. Like that's how I grew up playing. And like I've learned to not be that way. But like I used to be mad disrespectful on the basketball court. If you think I'm gonna go back to that and take that same, disrespect and like disrespect my brother. I'm sorry, I can't.

Yeah.

So if you think that's like, "Oh, that's affecting how hard you go," stop it. 'Cause y'all still complain that I do too much. So make up your mind, right? Like you still complain that I do too much. But don't for one second think this is just gonna be some disrespect and I'm gonna go out. See, what they became accustomed to seeing was like how I acted when he was a kid. Cleveland, because again, I was the mad disrespectful young motherfucker out there trying to make a living.

Right, right.

Like I was fighting for my livelihood, trying to make my impact on the NBA. What better impact on the NBA than to like battle it out with LeBron James? Like what? Like how, how, how much better of a statement can you make?

Exactly.

And so I'm sorry if like that's what somebody got accustomed to and that's That's what they still expect, but it ain't that and it won't be that.

Yeah.

I love it.

That's the maturity. Speaking on that, the Cleveland, you brought up Bron and Cleveland and y'all battling it out. Do you look back on that? 'Cause you had an incredible game 7, damn near triple double, but you guys lost that game. Does that one, like, do you look at that one and does that one haunt you more than the feeling of y'all winning and the accomplishment of winning it all? Which one weighs more to you in that?

I think that one bothers me a lot, but for different reasons. One, it bothers me because we never should have been in that game. And again, like I said, I'm a firm believer in you get what you deserve in the end. And so when I look at that, it's like the greatest teaser of my life. Like I had 32, 15 boards, and 9 assists. And if we win that game, I'm the Finals MVP. But did I really deserve it? Because we never should have been in game 7. And if we never get that far, do I then win Finals MVP if we finish it in 5? Right, right. You gotta think about all of it. Maybe, maybe, maybe not, possibly. But it definitely wasn't a guarantee. And if we win game 7, guarantee you book it, I'm Finals MVP.

Mm-hmm.

And so I look back on that and I'm like, okay, what changes if that does happen? Does my mindset change? Like now that I'm a Finals MVP, does it not allow me to be what I've been to this team? Does it not allow me to be as humble as I've been in my situation? Because me being as humble as I've been in my situation and what I've been to this team is the reason I'll make the Hall of Fame.

Mm-hmm.

You know, is the reason that, you know, I am who I am regardless of how many points I've scored.

Yeah.

How many rebounds I grabbed, how many assists I dished out.

Yeah.

Because of what I've been to this team and my journey and being humble and understanding my role and being as great at that as I can possibly be. So I look back on it and I'm like, if that happened, 'cause you know, you can never be so sure that it wouldn't have changed me and my outlook and me thinking like, "Oh man, well y'all need to pay me the most money." And like, "I should be this." And I don't know that, you know, I don't know if that changes my mindset, you know?

Right, right.

And so when I look back on it, it's like the greatest what if in my life. Like what if we would've just, like what if Andre's shot doesn't get blocked? And then the shot doesn't get blocked, we win, and I'm the Finals MVP. It's like the most like sweet and salty flavor I can have. 'Cause on one side I'm like, man, I had a great Game 7. Really one of the best Game 7s in history, and definitely NBA Finals history.

And that could put perspective on it, and that puts a stamp on —on the already impressive regular season.

Exactly.

Historic regular season that y'all had.

Absolutely. And so I'm like, "All right, like, damn, that would've been great." You know? And like, my Game 7 would've been talked about forever. Nobody talk about that Game 7.

Right.

I can't recall the last time I heard somebody talk about it. Other than like if we're in a setting like this. But like if somebody start talking about Game 7 on TV, nobody fucking mentions that Game 7.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And it was one of the best Game 7s. And like I said, in NBA Finals history for sure.

Yeah.

But we lost. And so I had to come to terms with like, in the end, I got what I deserve because I let my emotions get the best of me. I responded in a way to something that I shouldn't respond to like that in that moment, but I did. I'm not standing on it. It is what it is. We lost, oh well, move on. But in losing my emotions, letting my emotions get the best of me the way I did, that's something that I've struggled with since a kid.

Mm-hmm.

And do I ever learn? My wife always say to me, like, In life, you go through things, and like, if you don't learn the lesson when you go through something, you go through it again.

Mm.

And ultimately, you either learn the lesson or you don't. And I think, you know, although I've had like instances of where like shit has gone wrong, I learned my lesson in that instant, you know, from that thing and everything that came after that moment. And so it was a huge lesson in my life. And would I be who I am today without learning that lesson? Or would I still be making that same exact mistake?

Same mistake.

Yeah.

If I hadn't learned that lesson. So to answer your question after I just went through all of that. [LAUGHTER] Yes, that game haunts me.

Yeah.

Because I know what it could have done for me. Mm-hmm. Yet it's one of the biggest teachers in my life, and I don't regret it one bit. If anything I regret, there were some guys on that team that didn't get the opportunity to win a championship because of my emotions.

Mm-hmm.

And if I have one regret about the situation, it's that those guys who never got another chance to win that was on that team that didn't get to win.

Right.

That burns me.

Right.

But other than that, I'm appreciative of the lesson. Always having to hear the 3-1 shit sucks, but I earned that and I deserve it.

Right.

And so everything else I deserve, but for those guys that didn't get the opportunity to win, that burned me up.

The storyline of that though, '73 and '09.

Unbelievable.

The 3-1 comeback. Just the storyline of that.

Unbelievable.

Right there is just crazy. Talk me through a little bit of the scriptwriters.

Unbelievable.

All them motherfuckers got promotion that year. Bro, just talk to me on that, like '73, '09, y'all lost 9 games, bro.

It's crazy.

Crazy. Or was it 10? Was it 72 and 10 or 73 and 9?

73 and 9. 73 and 9.

Get it right, people don't blame him like that.

But 73 and 9.

It don't matter because we ain't finish it. But 73 and 9, honestly, we lost 9 games within like 13 games this past season. And me and Steph looked at each other like, can you believe we lost 9 games this year? Like, it's crazy to even think about. Like to only lose 9 games the entire season. But what I do remember vividly is like, hey, I was the one who's like, yo, like we should get this. Like, why not?

Yeah.

Let's do it. And like, I remember like I got hit in, I got hit in the head by Joe Ingles. Like going for a loose ball, like fell down. And this may be like 5 games left to the season. I was concussed as hell. I told nobody.

Yeah.

Because I'm like, if I sit this game, if I sit any of these games, we may not get the record.

Right.

We gotta get this record. So I just played through it. But like the amount of shit, like people always talk about load management, you know, all of that stuff. The amount of stuff I played through that year and we all played through just to get that was insane. Nuts. Like I literally, I know for sure I was concussed. I was dizzy. Light-headed for days. I'm like driving my car to the facility, like, "Whew, little dizzy." Yeah.

Head injury.

For a week. Like, I know for sure I was concussed.

That's crazy. And you said, "Fuck it, I gotta finish the job." Like, I refused.

I'm like, "No, we gonna like get this 73 games." And we did it, but at what price? You know? Like, I look back on that and it's like, wow. Wow. That was an incredible feat. If you told me today, y'all can win 73 games next year and actually close the deal and win a championship, I may say, "No, I'm cool." Really?

Why? Well, I'mma—

Because the price to pay to actually get through that, I'm not sure it's worth it in the end.

How many of that 82 games you played that year?

77.

Damn. Something like that. 78.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that's, people don't, 'cause you taking on, there's obviously the, we get to play the Warriors. So you gonna get the, you gonna get the teams that's, all right, we up for this. We playing against Steph, we playing against Klay. But then now y'all got, there's an added, —to that feature.

Exactly.

That like, all right, they ain't losing. Like we get a chance to— So you getting the crowds coming out, like you're getting the best on a nightly basis.

Well, I'll give you a prime example. This one, Milwaukee wasn't nothing. This 2016, Giannis was drafted in what, 2013?

Mm-hmm.

So I think this might've been still like the Jabari Parker Milwaukee days and Giannis. When Jabari was here and Giannis was here. We played there, we were 24-0. They had shirts made, 24-1 shirts.

Like it's the playoffs.

The whole crowd, and they were going crazy. And when they won that game, like they stopped our 24-0 streak, I think they had a bigger parade for that game than they did when they actually won a championship. Like they went crazy in that arena. Arena when they beat us that game. Like, that was every game.

Hilarious.

Like, no matter where we went, it's like the circus was coming to town. Right. Everybody showed up. There's no arenas that's not sold out. People going crazy. Like, everybody's up for the game. The bums, I saw y'all talking about how many weak dudes in the NBA. I agree, by the way. A lot of weak dudes in the NBA. And by the way, To the Twitter, Facebook, Instagrammers that's gonna be like, "I told you they was weak." They still way better than you.

Right.

Let's not get it twisted. The casual, yeah. Still way better than you, but they are weak.

Right.

So I saw that. But like, you go play somebody, like you playing against bums. And like, you see this because of who you are. And so bums get up to play against you because of who you are. But like you got a team full of bums, like teams that's tanking, that like get up and play the game of their lives. Like I remember we played the Lakers that year. I think the Lakers beat us twice that year. Yep. It was like 2 of they 16 wins.

Right, right. Yeah, terrible roster.

You know? But like, everybody, like everybody get up for you. It's like every game was a playoff game. It's a playoff game. So when I say I may not take it, you gotta think like you're being thrust into a playoff environment every game of the year. And just the toll it takes, that's where I first started graying that year. Just like the toll that it takes. I'm just not sure it's worth it. Now I'll take the championship, but the '73, they can have it.

They can have that.

I never want to do it again. Never want to even attempt it. Attempt to do it again.

Yeah. Now before we wrap it up with our boy Draymond, here's another edition of Starting Five where PG and our guest both pick teams based on a specific theme. And since our boy Draymond got the high IQ in basketball, we gonna go with IQ. Y'all gonna pick from point guard to center and you get to go first because you are our guest, man.

Point guard, Chris Paul.

P.

I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go Rondo.

Ooh, that's a great one.

I played with Doe and Doe Dog is— Great one. Dawg, student of the game.

That's a great one.

Like he, when we was in the playoffs, bro, he was scheduling us to come and do like actual, like bring everybody over, let's watch film. We gonna break down plays. I'm like, dog, you—

So we got CP, Rondo.

You next level with this shit.

That's a great one. Someone, I was talking to someone the other day and they was asking me like, have you ever talked basketball with Rondo? And I was like, I actually haven't, I would love to because A, I watch him. I know how smart he is. I've heard how much film he watches and the things that he can pick out. You can tell he watch a bunch of film and just love the game of basketball.

He loves the game, dog.

I can roll with that one. I'm gonna roll with CP, but that's a great pick.

Who your shooting guard?

My shooting guard is Kobe. Kobe?

Ooh, who you got, P? You Jordan.

That's cliché. I'm gonna go, who had a high level IQ shooting guard? I'm gonna go Manu.

Manu.

Manu, high IQ, great passer.

That's a great one.

Great score, transcended to the league. Eurostep, like just brought so much to the game. I'm gonna go Manu.

That's a great one. 3 spot.

Bron.

Ooh boy, he going, ain't he?

Yeah.

Shit, P.

I'm gonna go Larry Bird.

Ooh, that's nice. Give me the 4. You can pick yourself too.

Of course.

Oh, say no more.

Absolutely. So we know where we going with this one.

1000%. So Draymond. For sure.

Ain't no more. Absolutely. However, I'll tell you one that I considered at the 4, but I'm sorry OG, I just don't believe you smarter than me, but Kevin Garnett.

KG.

KG for sure.

KG. Yeah.

I can't go against myself, KG. KG.

We'll put both of y'all picture on the, on the tab.

Oh, KG, I really think I'm smarter than you though. No bullshit. But all due respect to the OG Hall of Fame, KG, but yours truly at the 4.

So Draymond at the 4. Who you got, P?

I'm gonna go to big fundamental.

Who you? I'm gonna go TD, Tim Duncan.

That's a good one. That's a great one. That's a great one.

Crafty.

Big dogs now. Go to the big dog.

That was actually my 5.

That was gonna be your 5?

Stole my 5. Stole 'em, didn't I?

Your story.

That's a good one. I can give you that one. So my 5, man, I'mma roll with Joker. Ah.

No more. That's a great one.

I had 2 in mind. Joker was one of them.

Oh boy, his IQ cold as hell too.

Absolutely.

What I like about Joker's IQ is number one, you can see how effortless things come to him on the basketball court. And like, they don't come that effortless because he's that athletic or like he is skilled, but they're so effortless because you mix the skill with the IQ. And the way he passes the ball, he don't just pass the ball to get an assist. He'll pass the ball like making a play—

Making an extra pass.

That he know the ball need to get over there and he can't get it there.

Right.

You know, and I think, you know, just the way he can read the game, like Joker he can dice your whole game plan up, your whole team up, and not shoot the basketball. And I think that's incredible. Amazing. I think an area that he's improved a lot is defensively. And he's not some lockdown defender or anything, but if you actually watch him on the defensive end, it's all just high IQ plays. It's not like he like athletically beat you to some spot.

Right, right.

Or he got there and he outjumps you at the rim to make up ground. His IQ, like, "Oh, they went there. I think they're trying to get to this." And he just go over there and like take something away. And so I think, you know, just the way he play the game, the way he see the floor, like he see some things on the floor and I think, you know, I can see a lot and he see some shit on the floor and I'll just be like, "What? Like how?" Right.

That is incredible.

Who you gonna find smarter than that right now?

I'm gonna go with somebody that I think, was the original, or not necessarily the original, but somewhere Jokic game evolved from? And I'm gonna go Marc Gasol. I think Marc Gasol was a hell of a mind.

You know, he a Laker, so, you know, I'm with you. He was a Laker. He's a Laker.

He's a Laker. He's a Grizzly. He's a Laker.

Stop.

He's a Laker. His brother was.— family.

He won a championship.

No, but still, it's family love. Yeah, he's a Grizzly. Don't do family love.

That's some typical Laker fan stuff.

Like, he just want to claim— come on. Same with the Cowboys. Don't care.

Come on, you played on the team and you go to another team, you still win a championship.

But he didn't win a championship.

His brother, his brother did. He did?

Yeah, that's why he's in the house.

It's in the house.

He's elected, so he shares that.

Paul is. I know, not Mark. But I'm just saying, he got— I put it in my mind like that because he's related to his brother. So that's a Laker, he got a ring. Who?

Huh? Who you say? What you mean?

His brother?

I said Paul got it. Paul got the ring.

What you thought I said?

What you thought I said, stupid?

I thought you said Paul.

Man, go.

I'm sure you said Paul Gasol.

This is what we do on this show, Draymond Green.

Oh, you did say Paul.

Paul Gasol.

Not Paul Gasol.

Pow gasol.

So go ahead, P.

Go ahead, P. You already know, he said Marcus Smart.

Nah, we not on that. We not on that no more. I'm off of that. Go on to the end of the show.

Yo, man, we had a blast with you, Draymond. We appreciate you coming through, blessing our stage, bro. Again, shout out your podcast. You gave us the platform for this right here. We appreciate you.

Salute you, my guy. Appreciate y'all having me.

Another episode of Podcast P.

Podcast P, man.

I appreciate it. Hey man, by the way, I know you just ended it. I'm supposed to shut the hell up, but I'll tell you, man, and not to say it like I'm just the shit, but I don't appreciate a lot of these podcasts that's starting to be thrown around, but I really, really like y'all podcast.

Appreciate it, bro.

Appreciate that, brother. Like not that like mine's just like some stamp stamp it. Like, oh yeah, I said it. Like, nah, not on no shit like that. But just as a fan, you know what I'm saying? Like just as a fan and watching stuff and like watching other podcasts and just trying to keep a lay of the land. Like I appreciate y'all podcast. It's very entertaining.

Thank you.

And the reason I say this is, like I said, not to stamp nothing or like I said it is Bible or some shit like that. But just like I appreciate when people tell me that they appreciate my podcast and I know the feeling that it gives me because it's not what we do, you know what I'm saying? It's like something that we've started doing. Now it's what we do. But you know, it's not like, it's not your day job. It's not your day job. It's not my day job, you know? And so like to hear that, it always give me a boost. So if I could give a boost, like anybody give a boost to me when they say that, I appreciate y'all podcast.

Appreciate you. We appreciate you, man.

Shout out Dallas. We didn't shout him out enough on the episode. Dallas couldn't be with us. Shout out to our guy Dallas Rutherford.

We love you, Dallas.

Dallas, we ain't shouting you out. You should have fucking been here, Dallas.

You should have been here.

Yeah.

Enjoy Atlanta.

Diagnosed with ugliness.