Draymond Green Reflects on Warriors Season Ending, Devin Booker Altercation & Future in Golden State

What's up everybody? Welcome back to the Draymond Green Show. On today's show, the Warriors season has officially ended, which wraps up my 14th year in the NBA, which is a huge blessing in itself. Lot to process, so let's get right into it. [MUSIC] First up, we will talk about the Suns game and then we'll get into the year. Obviously, congratulations to the Phoenix Suns. And moving on and facing the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round of the playoffs. Defeating us in the second play-in game. Let's talk about the end of that game so we can move past that. So obviously Devin Booker and I got ejected. Devin Booker told Scott Foster that I punched him in the stomach, which is a lie. Number one, a punch is with a closed fist. Number two, it's very obvious I was taking a foul. So Scott Foster goes to review it, realizes I didn't punch him in the stomach, and he calls it away from the play file. Guy's passing the ball. So I'm not sure how it's away from the play, but I think that's Scott Foster's way of, well, there's not really much here for me to call a flagrant foul or a technical foul, but I feel I need to do something. And so he calls it away from the play file, which to me made absolutely no sense. Yeah. However, I was standing on the sideline and Book was shooting a free throw and I was saying, "Yo Book, I punched you?" And I just kept saying, "So I punched you?" You know, and he didn't wanna answer. And so I kept asking him. And then finally he was like, "Man, I said I moved on, Draymond. I ain't know, I said I moved on." And I asked again, "So I punched you?" You know, and he got a little testy and started making some comments. So I made some comments back to him. But make no mistake about it, man. Book, that's my young fella, always have been. That relationship stems back to Book being in high school. And ain't nothing gonna change that relationship. We had that moment. What really pissed me off was we got ejected. We weren't cursing at each other or anything. We were talking back and forth. And as you can see by "AD Prank Show," I don't do well with like, shut up text. You know, like— Yeah. I'm gonna give you a tech so you guys have to stop talking. That shit don't work for me. That's never gonna work. And so that's what Scott was doing. He's like, I'm gonna give you guys one tech. And I know what it was. Again, it was one of those things of like, it was one of those things of like, I'm gonna get 'em a tech so they can stop. Well, that's ain't no technical foul stopping me from talking. So we end up getting ejected. Number one, like I said, that's my little bro, Scott Foster, putting himself in a place where he didn't necessarily belong. Kicking us out with 1 minute to go is pointless. The game is over. Our season's ending, theirs is moving on. And so I really just thought he did too much in the situation. It wasn't a situation that was getting outta hand or anything like that, you know? And so I really thought, yeah. Draymond Green. I thought he just did way too much. And which is why once he did his injected, you get out too. Everybody get out. Like, it's over. It's time to go. But I was, you know, I saw a comment Book made where he said, you know, something about my big brother beat me and I would get mad or something like that. Like, ain't no play-in, losing no play-in game making me mad like that. Yeah, so I didn't quite understand the comment because in this situation I am the big brother. And so I didn't quite get it. Needless to say, yeah, I didn't quite understand the statement. Nonetheless, Book called me after the game. We chopped it up. And we moved on. And it is what it is. I'm not gonna get into the context of our conversation that we had, but we had a conversation and it was much needed. And like I said to him, the relationship to me means far more than anything else. You know, he thought I was calling him a choice word, which I was not calling him. I was calling Dylan Brooks and Draymond Green that, who was behind him talking. Mm-hmm. But we had our conversation and we moved on. So that was that. But like I said, it was a little disappointing to get thrown outta the game. Number one, there just wasn't enough to be thrown outta the game. Number two, Dylan Brooks had said when I was on the bench, he said, "Yo, you gonna shake my hand after the game, right?" I said, "Absolutely, I'm gonna shake your hand because I'm not you." I'm not a guy that lose and run to the locker room because guys that lose and run to the locker room, they never win. Because if you don't know how to lose, you'll never learn. You'll never know how to win. Like there's a way to lose, you know? And so I've never been a guy that if I lose, I'm gonna run to the locker room. I don't respect guys that do that. So I was actually looking forward to telling Dylan Brooks like, yo, congratulations. Yeah. Telling Draymond Green like, yo, congratulations. And Scott Foster completely took that opportunity away. So that was a little— that was a little upsetting because like I said, I think it was just unnecessary. Like, you're a grown-ass man, you ain't gonna tell him not to talk. That's just never gonna fly like that. So— I was looking forward to telling those guys congratulations. Didn't get the opportunity to. Needless to say, congratulations to them. They won the play-in game. It's a big deal. So, you know, should be happy about that. That's a big momentous moment in their careers. So, you know, I think I didn't get the chance to tell them to their face like I wanted to, but There it is. Congratulations to those guys on winning a very big play-in game. That was huge. If you care about your energy, your skin, and aging well, listen up. 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And, you know, by now you all have seen what he said, but I'm happy— you know, we got to share that moment and that Steve was in the moment, right? Like capturing, like he didn't miss the moment. And, you know, it was a big deal because, you know, if you ask me, I don't know that he's coming back. If, you know, if you want my opinion, just with all the talk that's been going around and all— Yeah. If you act, want my opinion, I think not. Just because it just feels like that. I don't know, it just, I hope so. You know, I hope he's our coach next year. I also hope I'm on this team next year. We also don't know that, which we'll get into. But I don't know, man, it just, it felt like that was it. It really felt like, that was it. Is it? I don't know. Like I said, I hope not. But for some reason, it just felt like that was it. And man, if it was, what a run it's been. So lucky to have had for 12 years Steve as my coach. All the things that like— Steve Kerr. Like, it's no mistake that the same people in the NBA win over and over and over again. It's no mistake that Steve Kerr's won the way he's won. This guy knows so much about winning. He taught me so much, like little nuances and different things about winning that I've been a winner my whole life. But he taught me so many things about winning that quickly showed me like it's not a mistake, you know? And so, you know, I spoke about this before of everyone saying, "Oh man, Steve, this like, he doesn't do this, he doesn't do that." What he does is he just know how to win. And that's a bigger skill than any skill you can have is knowing how to win. Because ultimately what this boils down to in this league is wins and losses. At the end of the day, you can be as nice as you want, you could be as mean as you want, You could be as screwed up as you want. What it boils down to at the end of the day is how many games did you win? How many games did you lose? And Steve Kerr is a winner. And the things that he taught me about winning, I'll forever be grateful. Like, there's a know-how that come with winning. And Steve just knows how. Mm-hmm. And he taught us.— and gave us the ability to know how to do it. And so, man, I hope it's not the end. But like Steve said, he said all these jobs have an expiration date, which is a fact, you know? Which, you know, at least like, so I have a player option coming up this year. What, this summer? And I don't know what's gonna happen. You know, like what does that look like? Is that an opt-in and finish the contract? Is that an opt-in and get traded? Is that an opt-out and sign a longer-term deal? Like, I don't know what that looks like. We obviously haven't had our conversations yet. I have exit interviews coming up this week, which none of that stuff will get done in an exit interview, right? Like that stuff that, will play out over the next couple months. But you know, this year, this year was a little bit different for me. Like, you know, even going through the trade talks at the deadline, not quite knowing whether I'll get traded or not. Like I've never gone through that before, you know? And so that was different. It was eye-opening, right? Like it make you quickly realize like how fast your situation can change. Yeah. You know, to be in a place for 14 years and it can change like that, you know? And so that, that to me was an interesting experience. You know, I've heard guys through the years talk about being traded, talk about the possibility of being traded. And that just had never been my reality. And it's not your reality until it is, right? Right. And so, Going into the summer, like I said, I don't know. We'll see. Ultimately, I think I would love to finish in the place that I started, but there must be things held up on both ends. You know, I've always talked about relationships and how great relationships is. You give to me, I take from you. I give to you, you take from me. That's a great relationship. Everyone doing for each other. And so, You know, ultimately it has to make sense, you know, for the Golden State Warriors organization. And it also has to make sense for me. You know, this isn't a one-sided thing where it just makes sense for me and I just do whatever's needed. Like, no, it gotta feel good on both sides. 'Cause what I've learned in this job and showing up every day, if it don't feel good on both sides, at some point it's gonna crash and burn. And I don't want to put myself in a position to where I'm just like, oh man, you know, I want to be here so bad that you can do anything to me. Because ultimately, like, you can do that when everything's fine and, you know, you're not in the dog days of the season and it's fine. But all of a sudden you get to those dog days and you start thinking about that and it just don't go the same way. Like, it just doesn't feel the same. Yeah. You know, and so you have to kind of think with that mentality. How are you, how am I gonna feel about this when I don't feel like going to the gym the next day? You know, that's the mindset you gotta try to think about it in. You can't always just think about it in a perfectly sane mindset. Everything's great because that's when it's easy. But when it's hard, how are you gonna feel? And so I, you know, in doing this for so long, I try to approach it with that mindset. And I'm looking forward to having all the conversations and trying to figure out what exactly it is that next year holds and the years after that. I think for myself personally, my body felt great. You know, I'm excited about this summer 'cause I feel like I can get a lot better. Like I got a few things that I wanna work on that I still think I can build up on my game. And so I'm excited to get back to work. I don't wanna take a bunch of time off. I was talking to Draymond Green I was talking to Travis, my trainer, like, I don't wanna take a bunch of time off. I won't stop lifting at all. But as far as the basketball court, I don't wanna take a bunch of time off. I wanna keep going. Like, I feel great and I just wanna go until I'm done, you know? And so I think for me, that's probably another 3 years when I look at it, you know, this season, you know, one big accomplishment is just being healthy all year, you know, not having an injury. That sat me down for a long time. Like that was a big deal for me, you know? And hopefully, you know, end up on All-Defense team and can get that 10th one. But overall, it was a very trying, tough season. You know, you come into the season thinking it's gonna be one way, thinking you're gonna play with a certain team and then it doesn't go that way. And then trades and all these things. Like it wasn't this easiest year. However, loved the team, loved my teammates. Like we had a very good group. So going to work every day was fun. It was just very unpredictable. Like you didn't know from day to day who was gonna be playing. And I've never been in a situation like that where you don't know day to day who's gonna be in the starting lineup with you. And that was something that we faced this year. And so obviously gotta go back to the drawing board and— Draymond Green. See what's best. You got Jimmy, who will probably be out for a considerable amount of next year. Got Moses, who will probably be out for a good amount next year. So, man, we gotta figure it out. But overall, like I said, just leaving the season healthy. You know, having a pretty good year. Can go to sleep at night knowing and appreciating those things. But ultimately also knowing that Joe Lacob hates losing. He's going to make decisions to try to change that. Will that be in my favor or not? I don't know. We'll see. But like I said before, if this was it, it's been a hell of a run. All right. 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Take a quick style quiz and be sure to select Draymond when prompted to unlock your 70 to 80% off. This is a limited time offer, so don't wait. Again, that's fabletics.com/draymond for 70 to 80% off. Everything as a new VIP. And just looking back, obviously, you know, this is now the, it's been a season and a half with Jimmy Butler being here. And when we signed Jimmy, I think, you know, for most people that felt like, and obviously us, it felt like, all right, this is the last chance. But you essentially got a 3-year run to try to compete for a championship. And when we came into this season this year, we felt great about it. On just like what we could put together. Maybe we need to make a move to shore it all up. But you know, feel like, you know, you get to the top 6 healthy and we got a chance against anyone. And you know, with Jimmy getting hurt, it's really throwing a monkey wrench into things. Because now it's like, okay, what is the run, right? Right. What is the timetable on things? Like, you know, Jimmy come back, let's say if we just go for the sake of a year, right? So Jimmy gets hurt in January. So let's just go 12 months from then. He got surgery 6 weeks after. So let's go 12 months from when Jimmy got surgery. That puts us in late February, March, in March. Yeah. Well, if he gets back in February, March, then it's, you know, his ramp up, right? Getting back comfortable, getting over the fear of somebody running into you. All of those things gotta play out. So you just start looking at it and this, like I look at it through the same lens you all look at it through. You start to look at it and it's like, man, how does it work out? You know, like how does it? Yeah. How does it ultimately play out for us? And that's where I think things are just so uncertain, right? Like I think that's what puts so much uncertainty into all of it. If we have a healthy team this year, then you look at even Steve, then you know, like, all right, that's the best coach to help this team win a championship, of course, right? Like, and then you just, there's so many uncertainties.— to where we had this 3-year window and now I don't know. Like, I don't know, man. It's one of the more unpredictable ones. And yet and still, you know, the one thing I do understand is like championships don't just grow on trees. Like you can't just, if it was that easy, everyone would do it. Like just building a championship team, like, 'cause you want to. Like it's such an inexact science and so many things need to go right. And so I think oftentimes a lot of these organizations start making decisions based on we didn't win a championship this year. And that's just not a realistic feat. You know, so you start firing coaches, you start doing this, you get rid of players that possibly could help you at some point if you are able to reach that because you're, everything's just up against this window and you don't really get time to see things play out. And like I said, we've never been in this position, but feels like we're gonna be in a position where you don't necessarily get the time to see things play out, you know? And it's interesting when you see it around the league so often, but when it's at your front doorstep, changes a little bit. So what happens with the 3-year run now? Yeah. Who knows? But it's, we shall see. I don't know. I mean, I've never been so uncertain since early in my career on what happens next, but I'm truly at a loss now because you just don't know what direction will be what. So needless to say, just gotta stay ready for whatever it is. And, you know, roll with the punches. There's also the question of like, is the organization at a whole still at a championship level? And you know, when you're winning championships, sometimes that can change, right? Because success changes things. That's what anything in any business, in any organization, success changes things. I still personally think that our organization is the best organization in the NBA. I believe that. I think that's across the board. Ownership, front office, coaching staff. I still think it's the best organization in the NBA. But you're not at a championship level unless you're winning championships. The one thing I would say about us is we know how to do things at a championship level. And so that's always gonna be the standard. You know, when you are with an ownership, you know, you have an ownership group like a Joe Laker, you know, like a Peter Guber, the goal is always gonna be operating at a championship level. So I don't think that necessarily changes. However, you gotta do it, you know? But there's so many things that goes into that. You know, it's not just, and here's the thing also, I think so oftentimes you see, so oftentimes you see, people making these quick decisions in basketball unlike any other organizations. And when you do that, you're not a championship-level organization. I think that's one of the best things that the Warriors have done over the course of our tenure is there has not been much change. You just cannot reach championship level with no continuity. There must be continuity. And so— Draymond Green. I think that's been one of our superpowers, if you will, is having that continuity. But you know, when you're not winning, you're always gonna look at what is that thing to change. And you know what the reality is? Sometimes things just don't fall in your favor. You know, like we've had a little bout of bad luck. You know, that does not mean that the organization isn't operating at a championship level, but there's just so many things that, has to go right. And lately we haven't caught that break. You know, does that mean you change everything? I don't know that that's necessarily gonna be that beneficial, but we just haven't, we just haven't really caught the breaks that you need to catch. The breaks were falling in our place before. They haven't quite been falling in our place yet as of late. So overall, still the best organization in the NBA. Yeah. And we'll continue to operate at that level. But you know, we have not won. So you, there's gonna be some things that change. I just, well, number one, the roster, like rosters change every year. So, but you know, we are tasked with some, with some tough, tough decisions. Those are above my pay grade. So, you know, I can only do what I can and be who I am. But, you know, I think there are gonna be some tough calls that has to be made. And that's the part of the business that sucks. The part of business we all hate, but comes with the territory. And I think we've been blessed to not have those types of things happening over the last 14 years of my career. So we'll see where it goes. But, you know, I do know that they'll always do stuff from a winning standpoint in this organization. Draymond Green. This show is sponsored by Liquid IV. I am very particular with what I put in my body as someone who lives an active life on and off the basketball court. Whether I'm running around with my kids, working out, or just having another busy day, I've got to keep up. And that's where Liquid IV comes in. It's clinically demonstrated to hydrate faster than water alone, which honestly makes a difference when you're on the go. You can toss a few packets in your bag, carry-on, gym bag, even your car because it's so easy. Tara, pour, done. 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I appreciate you all for sticking with me, rocking with us this year, rocking with the Draymond Green Show this year. It's not over as we'll be breaking down the playoffs, but that is a wrap from year 14. I wanna thank you all again for tuning into the show. Make sure you check out the playoff content as it comes and I'll talk to y'all later. Peace. Till next time, that's a wrap. Deuces. If you're rocking with The Draymond Green Show, be sure to click follow on your favorite podcast app. And while you're there, go ahead and drop a 5-star rating and leave a review. I wanna hear what you think. And it would also mean a ton to me if you share it with a friend that you think would enjoy it. Let's keep this thing growing. The Draymond Green Show is presented by Audacy, and executive produced in conjunction with The New Media. Our executive producers are Leah Reese Dennis, Danny Friesinger, and Greg Holtzman. Video production and creative design by Curt Courtney, Tim Meekle, Lauren Vieira, and Evan O'Brien. Special thanks to the team at The New Media and the team at Audacy. Maura Curran, Josephina Francis, Hillary Shuff, Eric Donnelly, Kate Rose, Colin Gaynor, and Jake Gally. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]