Draymond GreenForward, Golden State Warriors

Draymond Green Supports KG: The NBA is "More Event Than Sport"

29 Mar 2026 · 1 min

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In this commentary, Draymond Green echoes Kevin Garnett’s assertion that the NBA functions more as a show than a traditional sport. Green agrees with Garnett, arguing that the league’s biggest current challenge is insufficient "eventization"—the transformation of games into compelling, standalone events that attract major TV and streaming partners. He cites the success of Jake Paul’s boxing events as a model, noting that their event-driven format drives lucrative deals with platforms like Netflix. Green points to the NBA’s own initiatives—the play‑in tournament and the in‑season tournament—as steps toward eventization, but stresses that many regular‑season games, especially those on regional networks, lack sufficient broadcast value. He explains that the league’s large inventory of games, combined with a dropping salary cap, means not all games are equally valuable, and without further event‑focused packaging, the NBA’s growth could stall.

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The great Kevin Garnett says the NBA is more of an event than a sport. And what he was getting at was pretty much saying like, it's a show. You know, it's not necessarily about the basketball or the basketball to its purest form. And I actually have to agree with KG, but it has to be. I think one of the biggest issues that the NBA has faced as of late is it not being eventized enough. When you look at big time TV partners, they are looking for an event. Ask Jake Paul. The reason Jake Paul is able to make so much money right now is because Jake Paul creates events. When Jake Paul has these boxing matches, It's an entire event. And that's what Netflix is buying. That's why the NBA created the play-in tournament. That's why the NBA created the in-season tournament. What sells is events. The one thing NBA has right now is a ton of inventory. But as we can see by the salary cap dropping, the inventory isn't always as valuable depending on which piece of the inventory that it is. And so you have a lot of these games that go on regional TV stations that aren't really worth a ton of money. That's just the business of basketball. But it has to be eventized for it to work, for the NBA to continue to grow. [SPEAKING CHINESE]