In this interview, Warriors forward Draymond Green outlines the team's upcoming early-season five-game road trip, which includes stops against the Houston Rockets, Washington Wizards, Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Oklahoma City Thunder. He offers brief assessments of each opponent, highlighting the Rockets' youth, the Wizards' recent form and the threat posed by Jordan Poole and Kyle Kuzma, the Celtics as defending champions, the Cavaliers' strong 5‑0 start, and the Thunder's emerging talent, especially Lindy Waters. Green emphasizes the importance of winning the expected games and maintaining confidence, noting that early road‑trip success can set the tone for the season. He also discusses the Warriors' road‑trip culture—team dinners, staff support from owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber, and the camaraderie that builds when the group is together off the court. The conversation shifts to nostalgic memories of past road trips, especially trips to Houston, and anecdotes about early‑career experiences, such as myths about hotel lobby encounters and a humorous story about teammate Eddie Robinson’s van. Mid‑interview, a paid political message promoting Kamala Harris’s policies is inserted, which is unrelated to the basketball discussion. Overall, the interview blends tactical preview, team‑building philosophy, and personal road‑trip stories, offering insight into the Warriors' mindset heading into a challenging stretch of games.
Chapters
But speaking of the road trip, we got a 5-gamer coming up early, fast, getting right into it. Got the Rockets.
Nice.
We got the Rockets, we got the Wizards, we got Boston, we got Cleveland, and we got OKC. Rockets, young up-and-coming team, they starting to put it together. The Wizards won their last 2 games. You know, a team that most people was looking at is gonna be the worst team in the league, won their last 2 games, sitting at 2-1. 2 and 2, feeling good about themselves. Boston, we all know Boston, no surprises there. Cleveland, 5 and 0, first 5 and 0 start since 2016. What is the significance of 2016? It's a dumbass year for Cleveland is the significance of 2016.
Yeah.
And we don't care about that year. You delete it from the record books, delete it from everything.
Yeah.
But it's they first 5 and 0 start. Kenny, my guy Kenny, Got them rolling. And then OKC, young, you know, young team. I wouldn't call them up and coming no more. They are here.
Yeah.
They have arrived playing really good basketball. They know who they are. They know who their top dogs are. They play good roles. Lindy Waters is a product of OKC and I am thrilled at how he's played.
He's nice.
He knows how to play ball.
He's nice. He know how to play some basketball.
He knows the right play to make on both sides of the floor. He's an OKC product, you know?
So.
Yeah. Those gonna be some tough, it's a tough road trip, a tough 5-game. Which one of them games you see and you get most excited about?
I mean, obviously I think this OKC game because it's a conference game. Boston, 'cause y'all get to see, I wanna see, you know, an early version of what y'all versus Boston look like. You know, without Steph. But, uh, the Wizards and the Rockets are the games I'm looking forward to because one, I like the Rockets, they like my little sleeper team. But the Wizards, you know, Jordan Poole, Kyle Kuzma, right?
Hey, dog.
Hey, bro. My bros, they are unpredictable, but they, you already know, they gonna be up But that game, that, ooh, that Golden State Wizards game, like people don't think about it, but that's going up for sure.
No, they gonna be up for it for sure. You know, both of those guys are some gunslingers.
Hey dawg, they coming out gunning.
I think JP averaging like 22 and 8 right now, shooting 45% from the 3, so he playing well.
Yeah, he ballin'.
Kuz got off to a bad start, but last game he got going and so, You know, those teams, those are natural letdown games. However, we're having a guy like JP there who's been here, you know, you know he gonna come out going at us. So hopefully that'll have guys, you know, alert and ready to go. But it's a natural letdown game for sure. Nonetheless, it's such a tough road trip that the ones you're supposed to win, you gotta win.
You gotta win those.
And so that's one that we supposed to win. We gotta make sure we take care of business. But you know, it'll be a really big game for them and we gotta make sure that we approach it with that same mindset.
Like in this 5-game road trip, like are there any other games that you look forward to? Like you like, man, ooh, I can't wait till we get there.
So for me, some of these games you get like nostalgia. Like for instance, anytime we go back to Houston, it just always take you back to the moments that we was playing JH.
Yeah.
And Trev and CP and Dwight and Capella, Eric Gordon. Like it takes you back to those moments. You know what I'm saying? Like you walk in there and it's like, oh man, like I remember how—
You know how to win in here too.
Absolutely. And so it takes you back there. The Wizards, Wizards is always a tough game. But like I said, hopefully that gets us up for that. Boston, that's a rematch of the finals a couple years ago. That's the defending champ. Everybody wanna play against the defending champ. So, you know, that's it. Cleveland, another one, one of my favorite teams in that building. That's a good matchup. You know what I'm saying? So every time you walk in there, you feel like, man, I own this building, but now they back, you know what I'm saying? They playing good basketball. Kenny got them guys rolling. And so that's what that is. And then OKC is the same thing. Like we had some battles in that arena. They back, you know what I'm saying? Them young guys rolling, they ready to take it to us. And so it's a tough, tough road trip, man. Nonetheless, if we can come outta this road trip strong, Yeah.
Watch out. Y'all gonna be good.
Yeah.
Don't look down. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can grab a couple of these wins. Ooh, that's gonna put y'all in a, just in a whole different swag. You know what I'm saying?
1,000%. This is one of those road trips that come early in the season where you go play great and then you start looking like, all right, we serious.
You know what I'm saying? Yeah, we can beat anybody.
Yeah, you start to have a certain level of confidence to where you like, all right, like, Say no fluke. Like we, we can for real put this together. So I like this road trip for us. Like I said, it's coming fast, came up fast on us, but I like where we at and I like, you know, this, this is an opportunity for us.
I always say the earlier the better too, 'cause it give you a chance to like do some team bonding, right? To be stuck in the city together, go eat, you know, have a day off, you know what I'm saying?
For sure.
Let your guard down somewhere else where you not just, where you not going home, right?
Yeah.
Like you're in a hotel, everybody there, okay, what we doing? We going to dinner? You know, it give you a chance to kind of, you know, build that camaraderie. Is there anything like you like to do on like big road trips with the team or, you know, stuff like that?
The presidential elections are coming up quickly, so I'm here to let you know that Kamala Harris believes in building wealth, Black generational wealth. Her policies will benefit our communities so we can pass something along to our kids. That's why Kamala Harris has a plan to give a $50,000 tax deduction for startup small businesses so we cannot just get by, but get ahead. Bringing down the cost of renting or buying a home is such an important step towards bridging the racial wealth gap. That's why she's eager to assist even more families in realizing their dreams of home ownership by offering $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers. Visit kamalaharris.com/issues to learn more about her vision for our future. Paid for by Harris for President. So we always try to make sure we get together at least in one of the cities, you know what I'm saying?
Yeah.
5-game road trip, you probably wanna get together in 2 of the cities. But get together at least once, we do dinners, we kick it. And the good thing about our organization is we play for the best organization in the league. And so we have these team dinners when we on the road, you know what I'm saying? Where like you can bring 10 people, 15 people, 20 people, like it don't matter. And that's something great that Joe Lacob and Peter Guber allows, you know, our staff to do. They provide these dinners and you figure these dinners ain't, they ain't cheap. Like we go to great restaurants. We don't be at like— No. Some rinky-dink restaurants. We'd be at the best of the best restaurant. And so that always allowed for team bonding. You know, sometimes it's a DJ there, you know what I'm saying? We'd be kicking it.
Damn.
And so that stuff is good.
That's crazy.
Doing stuff like that, you know what I'm saying? Is always, always great. And then you get on the road, you know what I'm saying? Your family ain't there and different things like that. And so you're able to lock in and focus and be in the moment and be present with those guys. And it's just us, you know what I'm saying? We actually say that in the huddle. It's just us. And so, you know, road trips like this are always good. You know, and like you said, especially with it coming early in the season for us, you get a chance to continue, or you get to continue to get to know the guys you with even better. So it's good. It's interesting though, these road trips for us now, they're not as long as they used to be. You know, when you was playing, I know when you was playing, y'all had long road trips.
Two weeks.
'Cause when I came in the league, we had a 16-day road trip my first year in the league. Hey, nah, sick. 16 days.
16 days. Yes.
You got any cool road trip stories? Like how was y'all road trips? I used to hear these stories. I mean, when you come into the league, you know, you see, we all saw Love and Basketball. I love Love and Basketball. And where he say, you know, you walk into the hotel lobby and there's 50 girls waiting.
Man.
In the hotel lobby.
Man.
And you know, there's 20 girls that make it past security on to your floor.
Man.
And the boldest one is standing right at your door. And young in the league, I was looking at it. Looking for that, and I never saw that.
How big of a donut and a zero? Hey bro, hey bro, I thought the same damn thing. I was watching the movies, I was like, okay, we about to get off the, uh, get off the bus, it's about to be fans, groupies, we rock stars. No, it was like 12:30 in the morning, there was nobody out there but some autograph people. It was like, hey bro, this is bullshit. Like, the next city is like, nope. The next city, like, we getting there early, maybe shit change.
Nope. Nope.
Okay. Hey bro, that is the, that was the biggest, that was the biggest myth.
It was crazy. I'm like, for sure it's about to be chicks in the lobby.
Where we at?
Draymond Green.
Man, I get in the league. Nobody.
First couple years in the league, I was thirsty scouring around the lobby, bro.
Ain't nobody there. Nobody, bro. Room service.
That's crazy.
Watch a movie, go to sleep.
And go to sleep. This is it.
It ain't nobody around. And you like it. Come on, dude, you in, what is it, Pontiac, Detroit. You know what I mean? You in Milwaukee. You in Indiana. You know what I'm saying?
What you not gonna do though is disrespect. —going to play the Pistons.
No, I'm saying you stay in Pontiac. You're not staying in Detroit.
Well, you used to stay in Birmingham.
Birmingham.
At the Townsend.
At the Townsend.
Incredible hotel.
Which is an amazing hotel. Nice little village. Go to the movies, go to the little restaurant. They got a couple spots you can go to. Townsend was great. Great, great rooms. Sleep all day. It's snowing.
Leo's Coney Island a block away.
Hey, dog, you remember E-Rob, Eddie Robinson?
Yeah, absolutely.
Okay, so, so, so, E-Rob. Oh, E-Rob. Yeah, that's my dog. E-Rob, Eddie Robinson, when we was in Detroit, he had this van, right? And when he was a rookie, he had like a, it was like a maroon van on like gold Dayton's, you feel what I'm saying? Like, you know, like, I was like, man, that shit hard.
So look, bro, we get to— You lied to him. You the problem.
Nah, that shit was, you know, that was like back in the day you had your gold rims, but he had like the camper van. Like, I don't know, like, you know, like he was one of the first dudes with like the stage, not a stagecoach, but whatever that shit was, it was a van. But it was roomy, you know, bucket seats, all that shit. So I'm like, "Hey, bro." He was like, "Yo, you can use the car. You can use the car." I was like, "Man, I want to go to the mall. Let me use your car, go to the mall. I want to catch a cab." He was like, "Man, you can use the car, but you can't make no left turns." [LAUGHTER] What?
What?
He said the left tire was broke. I said, man, get that shit to me anyway. Look, I was hitting rights, bro. I was hitting like 12 rights. Hey, I was scared as shit.
Crazy.
Hey, dog, I was scared as shit. I was scared as shit in Detroit. I was flying. Man, you could not make a— You could not make a left turn.
The fact that you actually decided to still drive that car, I gotta question you. This is madness.
For real, for real.
This is madness.
For real. Flagrant, flagrant. Hey, the shit didn't turn. Like if you tried to turn it left, that shit wasn't— Fuck it, make another right turn.
That is crazy. Shout out to E-Rob.
Shout out to him.
Shout out to him.
One of the best athletes I ever played with, E-Rob. That was my dog. We was rookies together. I'll never forget that shit though.
