Draymond GreenForward, Golden State Warriors

Draymond Green Recalls Crazy Coach Tom Izzo Recruiting Story

9 Dec 2025 · 1 min

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In this YouTube clip, NBA star Draymond Green shares a memorable recruiting anecdote involving Michigan State coach Tom Izzo. While Draymond, his mother, and his high‑school coach were on an unofficial visit to Izzo’s film room, his mother angrily threatened to leave because she preferred he attend the University of Michigan. Izzo responded by saying they could leave, prompting the mother to walk out. Izzo then called her back, bluffing that he would fire his assistant Lori if the family left. The mother, skeptical, called his bluff, but Izzo persisted, claiming Lori had already been fired. The bluff succeeded, the family stayed, and Draymond eventually committed to Michigan State. Green reflects that the incident revealed Izzo’s tough exterior paired with a “heart of gold.” The clip ends with a brief, unrelated segment of Draymond speaking Chinese.

Chapters

My favorite moment with Coach Izzo was I was sitting in a meeting. I was a recruit with my mom, my high school coach. My mom did not want me to go to Michigan State. My mom actually wanted me to go to Michigan. I had just reopened my recruitment from Kentucky. We were on an unofficial visit at Michigan State. We were sitting in Coach Izzo's film room and my mom went at Coach so crazy and he was like, "All right, you guys can leave then." And she was like, "All right, fine, we outta here. Let's go, Day Day." And we get up and walking out and he hop up, "Wait, wait, wait." She called his bluff. "Wait, wait, we can fix this." And he starts going into it, and my mom's like, "I called you, you ain't called me back. You a liar, this, that." And he's like, "You called who?" Lori, at the time, was Coach Izzo's assistant. She's like, "I talked to her." He's like, "All right, fine. She's fired then." Coach was bluffing. Lori wasn't fired, and we didn't go anywhere, and the rest is history, right? But that was one of my favorite moments because that moment right there really shows me who Coach Izzo is. He's tough as hell. Extremely tough on the outside, but in the center, Sike, this heart of gold. [SPEAKING CHINESE]