In a panel with moderator Baron Davis and Hall‑Famer Oscar Robertson, Draymond Green addresses Charles Barkley’s criticism that the modern NBA All‑Star Game has become a spectacle of tricks rather than a true basketball contest. Green argues that the over‑reliance on flashy plays, lack of preparation, and minimal defensive effort dilute the competitive integrity of the event. He emphasizes the need for genuine practice, defensive commitment, and a balance between entertainment and real basketball. The conversation shifts to the underdog narrative, with Green reflecting on his own career as an underdog and champion. Respect for Oscar Robertson is highlighted; Green acknowledges Robertson’s historic contributions, especially his lawsuit that paved the way for modern free‑agency and higher player salaries. Green also discusses the evolution of the NBA: the rise of the three‑point era, the disappearance of veteran‑driven “chess‑match” basketball, and recent league‑wide concerns about over‑reliance on three‑point shooting, referencing the commissioner’s remarks. Anecdotes about a recent loss to Utah illustrate how rapid scoring runs can dominate games today. Throughout, Green balances critique with admiration for past eras and players, underscoring a desire for the All‑Star Game to retain genuine basketball competition while still entertaining fans.
Chapters
Charles Barkley blamed your generation of basketball for messing up the All-Star Game. Quote, "I'm going to disagree with Draymond a lot. They messed the game up. His generation messed the game up. We're doing every type of trick to make the weekend exciting." What are your thoughts on what Chuck is talking about?
I think doing every type of trick is the problem, which was my point that we're doing every trick, but this is about a basketball game. And basketball game is simply what? A basketball game. Because we played 32 minutes of basketball on a 3-hour telecast. But it was supposed to be a basketball game. And so my word was actually, let's just play a basketball game. Let's make this East versus West. And maybe make that mean something. You know what I'm saying?
Like make— Hey, can we get back to that?
Can you make that mean something, right? But I also think like, BD, basketball is so much more nuanced today than it was 20 years ago. That is with anything that develops over the course of 20 years, right? There's gonna be more nuance because you just learn more, right? Like coaches get smarter, plays get trickier, defensive adjustments get like, Mm-hmm. All that stuff, it grows. And so, in saying that, people wanna see an incredible basketball game, but there's no real practice. The practice is for the fans. You shoot half-court shots, you shoot layups. You have to put guys in position to approach just like they approach real games. In turn, you may have to extend the All-Star break because you can't punish those guys for being All-Stars and they don't get a break. But at the same time, you probably need a couple days of real practice. If you want a real game, you need guys getting ready for the game like they get ready, prepare for a real game. Shooting times, all of this. You don't get all of that stuff before an All-Star Game. You take pictures. You know what I'm saying? So it's, you do star lineups. It's all a show. But then you want premier operating systems, that is players. You want premier operating systems operating at their highest capability and you just booted up the processor.
I don't even think it's that, Mike. You just want people to play defense. Everybody saying all, they saying all kind of shit. All it is is a commitment to playing some type of defense and to stop a basket. Like where, but it's also if everybody is an offensive player, that's in the All-Star Game, then you're not gonna have a real game. 'Cause everybody, it's a showcase, they just gonna dunk, you know what I mean? And they gonna dunk, it's gonna be threes, it's gonna be half-court shots, and nobody's gonna play defense. When are you gonna reward the defensive guys, the guys who hold down the fort? Because they gonna come into the All-Star Game playing defense. If they play, if people play a little bit of defense, then you can't help but get competitive if you playing defense.
I agree with that, but I also think that is also part of preparation. Like what is the preparation for the game? Like if I haven't prepared for a game, guess what I'm gonna do, BD? I'm gonna take a few shots. Like guys, like you gonna take some shots, you gonna, but you ain't about to sit down and move and like, you ain't doing all of that. But offense is up to you, right? Like you're dictating where you're trying to get, where you're trying to go. That's a different thing.
Yeah, but it's like, they don't, you just gotta take it personal, right?
Let's say— But what's to take personal?
Steph versus Kyrie. That ain't personal enough for you? Like, I'm not just gonna let Steph shoot a 3 on me. Or if I'm Kyrie, just let, or if I'm Steph, let Kyrie just shoot a 3. I wanna see, like, if they take a little bit of challenge, like, you know what, you not scoring on me. Whether it's Joker or Wimby, like, yo, I'm not letting him score on me. That's the personal—
In the Instagram era, brother, don't nobody wanna get embarrassed during the Instagram era.
Then you know what? It ain't gonna be no one-on-one.
I agree. It ain't gonna be no one-on-one.
Man, it's the best players in the world. Nobody can guard nobody. But at the same time, in the All-Star Game, Like if Kobe, if Kobe guard me, right? I'm trying to go at Kobe. He not trying to let me get off.
All the casuals on Instagram that sit behind their computers and talk junk about people, that's talking about, oh, we want to see a great game. Well, your nasty habits on Instagram has ruined it because no one wants to get embarrassed. So everybody go out there and be cool. And it is what it is.
Is this a defense? I think it's just a defensive challenge. Since guaranteeing the chip, the comments and the media have y'all viewed as underdogs. You've been an underdog, you've been the lead dog within the 4 championships. Which one is better for you?
Underdog. Everybody counting you out, that's always better. I've been an underdog my whole life. Like, that was my story coming up. When you winning as an underdog, when people telling you you can't do it, you know, when everybody jump on the bandwagon, oh, they gonna win, that's like, yeah, like, get outta here. Like, I hate bandwagoners, but when you ain't got nobody on the bandwagon, then you go win, à la 2015, à la 2022. When you go do that, them the fun ones. That's when you like, "Oh man, like, wow, like shut up." Like, that's underdog for sure, any day.
Now let's get into it.
Well, outta Draymond said so much, you know, who cares what Draymond says? He doesn't mean anything. You know, people, This is what I mean, you know, I mean, one guy can say this and one guy can say that. The game is the game, is what it is. People either like the game or they don't. And I think people enjoy the game, especially if their team can win. And you look at the basketball, it might be boring to him because if he's not passing the ball to Curry, what is he doing? I agree.
Triple single.
I mean, not to single that out because I think he knows how to play basketball, but he passes the ball to Curry more than anyone I've ever seen in in basketball. And so it means a lot. So, you know, it might be boring to him at times because what he's doing, maybe it is boring when he's out there. He's not getting— he's not shooting the shot, he's not shooting a lot, and he's not guarding a lot.
So it's boring. I thought those comments were very interesting. The Big O is 86 years old.
Uh, respect your elders.
So if you think I'm going to come on here And disrespect, because there was disrespect on that.
Ain't how I roll.
Yeah. It's not how I'm, I'm never gonna disrespect one of the pioneers of the game because he shared that opinion.
Thank God.
Because quite frankly, being great at something when it's skill involved doesn't necessarily mean the knowledge matches the greatness of that skill. And I think in basketball, that's oftentimes misconstrued where you see a guy with great skill and you like, yo, that guy got great skill. In turn, you give that guy respect because of the skill.
Mm-hmm.
But the knowledge ain't really there. And so that happens all the time in what we do. That's neither here nor there. What I do know is, I know this game as good as most. I know this game through and through and feel like I can sit at the table with anyone and talk this game. So I know I'm stellar in that department. So I have no problems there.
It was a hard take.
Speaking of the Big O though, 'cause I'm gonna really speak about the Big O. As I said, he 86 years old. If you think disrespect is coming, No chance. We want to enjoy our last years we got with our pioneers. The time we do have left with them, we gonna enjoy that.
So— Absolutely.
You know, I'm gonna enjoy these last years and what he's done for this game. When you talk about player free agency—
Yeah.
Moves. Big O filed a lawsuit that ran over the course of 4 to 5 years that he won. That is one of the main reasons players Salaries went up. So I thank you.
Yep. Absolutely.
That is one of the main reasons players can move around in free agency. I have not moved around in free agency. I haven't taken advantage of that, but I thank you because that is something that has helped this league, my counterparts, myself. So we thank you. You know, when we start talking about knowing the game and how you think the game, I'm not sure what idiot wouldn't want to pass Steph Curry the ball when he's the greatest shooter of all time. I don't really take that personal. Certain games I'm gonna look for him even more than you're accustomed to me looking for him because why wouldn't I? It opens up things for everyone else. Steph Curry is obviously Steph Curry. He's really him. You know what I'm saying? And so quite honestly, Big O, I get a lot of pleasure outta passing the ball. I actually find a rhythm through passing. I enjoy that. Always been that way my whole life.
Yeah.
Even at the time in my life when I was predominantly a scorer. Because, you know, we all was that at some point in our careers. So I always been a pass-first guy, just how I play the game. For a guy that averaged 11 assists, you were also passing the ball. You cannot quite average 11 assists and not pass the ball. In the year that Big O won a championship when he was starting to age, you were passing the ball to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar himself. Not quite sure where the did come from. I was also extremely surprised, BD, because during the skills challenge that I blew, I saw him on the sideline and I got up out my seat, I went and said hello. And he's like, "Haha, man, you still out there doing it. Keep on going. I love watching you play, man. I just love watching you play. You keep going." And so to hear him say that, and then the next morning he completely flip and go opposite, I was a little surprised by that, I must say, because it wasn't quite that same energy when I saw him. And by the way, if he told me right in my face like, "Hey, we don't care what you say. You just passed Steph Curry," I'd be like, "All right, Big O, respect. That's your opinion." Quite honestly, at 86, I'm pretty sure Big O ain't watching many of our games. Big O sound asleep by the time we play at night. Like, he sound asleep.
Bro, you gotta stop.
There's 0% chance.
No, leave Big O.
Big O is not watching the door.
We love you, Big O.
No, we love Big O for sure.
You a pioneer.
Absolutely. And you gotta think about it sometimes. You gotta think about it like, you know, we all in church. You know what I'm saying?
We see people in church, right?
You know, you're gonna act a certain way. When you get out of church, that's where you go get hot, you know? And it was just a hot take, man.
It was a very hot take. But then he said, I ain't guarding nobody. That's how I know Big O ain't watching the game. He said, I ain't guarding nobody. Big O can't be watching the game. Lastly, BD, check this out. Big O—
Is a cornerstone.
Is a one-time NBA champion, one-time NBA All-Star, Most Valuable Player, 12-time NBA All-Star. And if I'm not mistaken, I think he played 12 seasons. 3-time All-Star MVP, 9-time First Team NBA, 2-time Second Team NBA, Rookie of the Year, 6-time assist leader.
Come on, that's a senior decade. Listen.
That's a senior dude too.
Yes he is.
Come on. And he got the respect from me, which is why I ain't crushing him how I would crush somebody else. I ain't gonna crush Big O. He got my respect.
He got all the credentials, yeah.
I got my respect.
For sure.
But nonetheless, I ain't trying to make myself out to be Big O or none of that. But I'm gonna tell you, last thing I'm gonna say about Big O B.D., he got upset at me. If he actually read my comments, it was talking about the game is boring. And it was talking about the game is boring because I actually said in the— we played the Lakers maybe a week or two ago. And when we played them, it was a chess match with Bron. Like every play you're trying to figure something else out. And that's how the game used to be when I came in. And I loved that. But now there's no vets in the NBA no more. They got rid of all the vets. So you don't play those chess matches no more. Yeah. The reality is sometimes it's just who can hit the most shots at a certain time. We lost to Utah.
Draymond Green.
We lost to Utah a week or two, a week before break or whatever it was. We were up 16 points. They scored 20 points. Utah's the worst team in the league, I think by record. If not by record, they're close to it by record, right? Like they scored 20 points in 3 minutes and we didn't play bad defense. They scored 20. That is the new NBA. Our commissioner, everybody get mad at me like I said something crazy. Our commissioner, 2 months ago, just was talking about correcting the 3-point problem, right? Like, "I'm working on correcting the 3-point issue." Our commissioner said that. To me, that was along those same lines because that's along to what I was saying, right? Like, you don't get to think in the game anymore. So I was really surprised. And how I know Big O be sleep watching the game, though we not watching the games, because he also just heard somebody say, Draymond said the game's boring, and didn't have any context. Because if he had context, I'm more so actually applauding the way the NBA used to be. So I'm actually applauding him in his era more, if anything. And so, you know, I just tell Bingo, make sure whoever, you know, keeping him up to date on his things is actually keep giving him context because—
