In this episode of the Draymond Green Show, Draymond and a rotating panel of guests discuss a range of topics centered on the Golden State Warriors' recent championship and its broader context. The conversation opens with Draymond emphasizing the need for dedication, health, and process to stay in contention for future titles. The panel then ranks modern 3‑point shooters, placing Stephen Curry first and highlighting the evolution of the three‑point shot compared to earlier eras. A light‑hearted back‑and‑forth ensues about defensive reputation and double‑team scenarios. Draymond addresses media criticism, notably JJ Redick’s "America is tired of Draymond Green" comment, calling it unfounded and racially charged. He recounts his controversial ejection in Game 1 of the second round, discussing the flagrant call, reputation factors, and his reaction. An anecdote reveals that Kobe Bryant once signed a deal with Turner Sports but declined due to promotional obligations. The show’s highlight is a interview with Klay Thompson, who reflects on his comeback, doubts, and the sweetness of winning another championship, affirming his commitment to the Warriors. The panel debates whether the 2017‑18 Warriors were the "best team ever," compares them to historic squads, and even entertains a hypothetical trade of those championships for a perfect 73‑win season. Throughout, the tone shifts between motivational, analytical, playful, defensive, and celebratory, offering insight into player perspectives, media dynamics, and the Warriors’ legacy.
Chapters
And I still think, you know, we get ourselves there. We know what it takes to win. We know how to get it done, but we're a long ways away. And we got a lot of improvements to make as the course of the season goes on. But if we stay dedicated to the process of reaching, of getting the championship, dedicated to what it takes daily to win a championship, you can, we can put ourselves in contention. And that's all you can ask for is to give yourself a chance to be in contention. And I think if we continue to work, continue to stay committed, obviously stay healthy and get healthier, we can give ourselves a real chance. Draymond Green. And I like that.
And boy, don't let us win a fucking championship.
'Cause you gotta fucking hear it from me.
For yourself, who is one of the greatest 3-point shooters that we've seen in this league, who do you rank in your top 5 3-point shooters to come through this league?
Oh, that's easy. That's easy.
Steph is first.
I respect that.
Everybody else is way down the list to me. In no particular order, the other four, it's Klay, Kyle Korver, Ray Allen, Reggie Miller. To me, those are the guys. Because when we talk about great shooters, I don't want to disparage the previous iteration of 3-point shooters. In the '80s or the '90s, but those guys were not shooting the shots we take today. Those guys were not taking the difficult shots we were taking, nor were they shooting it at the volume. So yes, a guy like Tim Legler, great shooter, he shot I think 55.6% one year to lead the league, but he wasn't shooting the shots Klay was shooting. He's not shooting the shots Kyle Korver was shooting. And that's not a knock on Tim.
That's—
it was a different game and the game has evolved. Yeah. And now we put such a premium on generating 3-point looks. It's not just about the quality of the look, it's the volume of looks. If Steph Curry, and Tom Habenstroh always talks about this, I think Steph's up to like 15, almost 15 a game this year.
Yeah.
Tom's always been like, Steph needs to shoot 20 a game. 'Cause you do the math on that. Those 20 shots equal about 27 points. On average. On average.
Because as you know, like nobody else in this league, I'm locking that shit up.
So—
Ah, yeah. Ah, yeah. Whatever. That's why you need a double team every time we play, y'all.
That's crazy. I never asked for a double team. That's not even in my makeup.
I always find myself to be double every single time I play against you.
Hey, if you wanna duck in like Shaq, you get 2 feet in the paint, the double team gotta come, big fella. Like, I mean, at that point, You gotta go for what you know. You know what I'm saying?
But, nah, I mean—
Well, if you say that you're that good of a defender, I mean, I don't know. I've never asked for a double team in my life, so—
Me either. That ain't me.
And I think I'm a pretty good defender, especially when I'm on, so—
I mean, when we put you in every pick and roll and they bring you up to blitz because you can't get, you know, you just like blitz it 'cause you can't get up the floor, that's kind of like, asking for a double team with 6 feet on the other end.
Double step, double walk. Hey, you gonna double step?
Hold on, so you want me to play drop against Steph Curry?
No, you don't gotta be drop, but you ain't gotta blitz it.
I wasn't blitzing last time. I was just trying to make sure we got the ball out of his hands.
There we go.
You can make plays 'cause you can't shoot the basketball.
Hey, but I make every other play.
—and I hope— Why would I?
Leave me open down the stretch, I'mma can your ass.
But would I rather make Stephen Curry or you beat us? I'll take you any single day.
Hey man, many has succumbed to that mindset, brother. There's a lot of news in sports talk world, in the sports talk world. But in particular, JJ Redick sending the clown back to the circus. Number one, I'm not sure where this dog, this bad dog guy really came from. I really noticed him maybe over the course of the last couple months. Going up and just screaming to the top of his lungs when he's sitting next to Stephen A. Yesterday, he goes on TV and he says, "America is tired of Draymond Green." Ah, just shut up and play, will you please?
America's tired of Draymond Green. I mean, I deal with them constantly. The fans, they're not, San Francisco fans, different story. Of course. Oh, they're tired of this. Should be quiet and play.
Not sure what gives him the right to speak for America. What he's done in his life for her. You know, I mean, he sits in on Stephen A.'s show and screams. So I'm not sure who he's become in sports or in media to say how America feels and what gives him that right. But we're not shocked that he would think that he has the right to speak for America. He then proceeds to say, "Shut up and play." I'm not one to really pull the race card very often because I think, you know, we all know the role that race play in the world that we live in. And so I'm not really one to pull the race card very often, but That definitely had a very racist connotation. Just, I mean, he, a very racist undertone. And even beyond it being, having the racist undertone, we don't need to go any further than who are you? Who are you to say, like, what have you done in your life to say, America's tired of him. Shut up and play. Shut up and play. As I said on my Instagram caption the other day, those shut up and play, shut up and dribble days, those are long gone. We don't, we don't, we don't listen to that anymore.
We don't want to hear it anymore.
It has no place here, and nor will it be tolerated. I also proceeded to say, it's time for you to go home and sit on your couch and thank the good Lord that I didn't want his job. I meant that from the bottom of my heart. Before I signed with Turner, I was actually offered a spot on First Take. So there's your backstory for— I don't play games. I don't play these reindeer games When I speak, I speak from the heart. When I speak, know it's real. It's thoughtful. And more importantly, it's truthful. Welcome to the Draymond Green Show, special one.
This is an emergency pod. It is 6:15 PM, live from my hotel room in beautiful Memphis, Tennessee. Dubs just got a win, and I know that's why everyone is here, because y'all are looking for my breakdown on the game and what I saw, right?
No, you're here to listen.
You want to hear my thoughts and my take on the infamous Draymond Green ejection from Game 1 of Round 2.
Now let's, now let's really talk about what everyone's here for.
What, you know, what everyone wants to talk about, which is me getting ejected for—
Ahem.
I'm not quite sure for what, but for a foul. Very interesting one. You know, one thing about that foul is I actually tried to hold him up and I was, well, I wasn't told anything because I left the court, but guys were told I was ejected for throwing him down. Which is very interesting because I mean, even once he hit the ground, I still was holding his jersey up. But I mean, at this point I kind of expect things like that. Like I've been suspended from Game 5 of the NBA Finals. Do you think I for one second don't believe I would get kicked out of Game 1 of the second round. Not surprising to me at all. Not, not, not one bit. So, you know, when, when they reviewed the file for as long as they reviewed it, I said to myself, I said, hmm, I wonder what could they be deciding that's possibly going to take this long. I'm actually dumb enough to think I wasn't going to get a flagrant one. Yeah. Talk about an idiot. You wanna call anybody an idiot, look no further than Draymond Green himself. 'Cause I was, I mean, I was literally sitting there like, you know what's crazy? As I was about to start dancing to the crowd saying, "Kick him out, kick him out," to taunt them because it's like, kick him out for that? So I was about to start dancing. And when I was literally starting to edge up off the scorer's table, Something said to me, but it's you involved in this play, Draymond. So because it's you involved in this play, you probably shouldn't dance because you probably should always expect the unexpected. And so the little birdie that sits on my shoulder nowadays told me, hmm, just wait a second. Don't get up and dance and make fun of them. Because if you get up and dance and make fun of them, sure enough, you're then not expecting the unexpected. And if you're not expecting the unexpected, expected, very soon they'll probably be able to make fun of you. And so I sat there and then the official turned, he had a hard time telling, he said, and it's going to be a flagrant, and like long pause, like pause, two. He didn't even want to say it was going to be a flagrant two, which was very interesting to me. Because again, I am dumb enough to think that it would not even be a flagrant one. That, you know, the playoffs are a little tougher and not as soft as the regular season, you know? And that, you know, you can bump a little more and you get away with a little more, you know? But, you know, we've seen questionable calls in the first round, some things that didn't get reviewed. And yeah, I guess it, you know, sometimes I guess it's just a case-by-case thing. It's, you know, it's a reputation thing. I think tonight was probably a reputation thing more so than a hard foul.
That's really what's really funny. I'll tell you this funny story. Not many people know this, and I'm probably gonna get in trouble for telling it, I'm telling you this. We actually hired Kobe Bryant.
At Turner?
At Turner. But he didn't wanna do all the other bullshit. This is one of the, and I'm probably gonna get in trouble for saying this, but this is one of the like little things that we kept, we keep in the closet. So he actually signed with us, but then when we started telling him like, you know, I have to do a bunch of radio shows Like, "Hey, I go on this show on Mondays." I'm, "Hey, from Thursday night TNT, same thing on Tuesday, same thing on Wednesday, same thing on Thursday." He like, "Yeah, I don't wanna do all that stuff." He says, "Well, you have to promote the show, Kobe." So Kobe actually is so funny. And like I say, it's probably only 10 people in the world know that, that he actually signed with us. He's like, "Nah, I'm not doing all that other bullshit." He just like, "Nah." But it was funny, 'cause like I say, we always had something to do.
Yeah. So wait, hold on. So Kobe signed, and he was gonna be on, like, just one of the guys on the Thursday night crew?
Yeah.
Wow. Yeah, and he had signed with us. David Levy, my old boss, had signed him to a deal. And we were excited. We were really excited. And then he called me back like a week, 10 days later, somewhere in that timeframe, like, Yeah, Kobe's not gonna come. We're like, why? 'Cause he don't wanna do all the PR stuff. He don't wanna go on radio shows and talk about basketball. I'm like, well, that's part of the gig.
What's up everybody? Welcome to the Draymond Green Show Championship Edition. That's my daughter, Cash. We are in the press room, still here at TD Garden, couple hours after the game. 4-time champions up here, as you see. Got my man Killer Klay, Draymond Green, the vet, the OG, the guy who guided us through all of this. Honored to be here, man. They said we could not do it again. Talk to me, Killer. How does this one feel as a—
in comparison to the other 3, how does this one feel?
I can't sugarcoat it, bro. It's the sweetest one. Just, uh, You know, from the 15-50 season when Steph and I were on the bench, we had to watch you out there just—
Struggle.
Anchoring these young bucks and—
Struggle.
Then the next year having to watch again and to insert myself in this lineup and then just see the whole thing come together, bro. It's like the sweetest experience I've ever been a part of, man. And it makes the journey that much sweeter just knowing what we all had to go through. So— I just, it's an honor to be up here for real.
This is such a special moment, not because we just won a championship, but because it took us a championship to get Klay Thompson on the podcast. Ha ha ha, that is true. So that is such an honor.
But along this journey, and which has been 3 years now, was there ever any doubt for you, A, A, that you would be able to come back the player that you have come back, and B, that we would be able to do this again once you came back?
Oh yeah, I doubted, man, every day. I remember guarding LB in September and I could not stay in front of this man. Even Will Sheehy, who never played in the league, I was getting busted by him, everybody. I was just the weak link out there. And I'm just like, man, I swear I used to be a great defender. I swear I used to be a great shooter. And then Rick Celebri would tell me every day, like, Clay, it's going to be up and down. But once you, we just need Clay for the playoffs and that's all it's going to take. And I was like, okay, Rick, whatever you say. So I had so many doubts, but once we got closer to the real thing though, and we actually didn't even get to play with each other until the first playoff game. Well, once I saw you two on the floor with Steph and the talent we had around us, I knew it was a wrap. Like no one can mess with us.
One more question before we get Klay outta here, because I promised him this would be 3 questions, and it is a miracle that we got him here. But for you moving forward, do we have Klay Thompson finishing his career with the Golden State Warriors? I need to know this for my own personal sake.
Man, I did tell Steve Kerr at the NBA TV little podium, I told him, you know, I'm going full Michael Jordan. I'm aligning myself with Steve. I ain't playing for anybody but Steve. So that's the plan. And I don't, it would be weird to be in another uni, you know? So I'm just grateful to be up here and to be mentioned with the Lakers, the Celtics, and the Bulls. Now we're there. This, this, I never, sure, when you got drafted here, Andre signed on, you never would envision this, maybe one, but four. And we ain't done. That's the beautiful thing about it. We got these young bucks behind us and we got Same squad coming back is scary for the NBA.
To be quite frank with you, I still think we had best team ever. Although we didn't finish it and win a championship, I still think that was the best team ever until 2017.
I was about to say, where we, where we going with that? 'Cause that team was nice.
Until 2017.
And then I think that team took over as the greatest team ever. So I think we still accomplished it. Best team ever.
But not quite, you know, people take numbers and they wanna put the numbers there and say, oh, well the Bulls had 72 wins.
It's the feeling, bro.
Like, exactly. We were the best team ever. I don't care what no one said.
I can't see anyone beating that 2017 team. Not even our first, the '15, '16. I can't see anyone beating that 2017 team.
They say in the medical field, I concur.
Hands down.
That's it.
The best team ever. And speaking of a championship, if you could trade the 2017 and '18 championship to complete the '73 win championship. Would you trade those two championships to complete the '73?
Mm.
So I'm gonna get the resume right. So I have, we'd have two chips and a damn near perfect season.
Mm-hmm.
Or three, or three chips and a bundle.
Or three chips and an elimination on the 16th.
You see, I didn't even wanna say it.
You see, I blanked out as soon as I had to even acknowledge it. 16. Oh man, I don't even know how to answer that question. I would say no, but I think for the rest of our life, I'll still be able to just laugh at 16, which is fine. It's fine. It's always gonna be that just, awkward like acknowledgement of an amazing regular season and the finals run. But yeah, I say no, but I'm glad I don't take myself too seriously. Dang, that was hard.
You don't have you a Steph Curry in your life, get you a Steph Curry because if he say yes, This interview is over.
My heart was broken.
Get you a Steph Curry. Is he mean? Yes.
Get you a Steph. No, I think honestly, that essentially puts you in a place of Undoubtedly the best team ever. How does this one feel?
This one's, I'm at a loss of words because I think they let us get this one and we gonna get off. We gonna get our, we gonna get our you know what off.
Absolutely.
They made a mistake letting us get this one off.
Absolutely.
No, but I was saying because There's only so many, you talk about any sport, there's only so many that put a stranglehold on that entire league for this long. Like you talk about Brady, talk about the 49ers, you know, you talk about, you know, the Bulls, the Spurs had it stretched out and you talk about the Lakers and Celtics, obviously, but you know, this is 75th year of the NBA, 75 years when we do like the 200th year. Like it's etched in stone. Like we can really get our shit off now.
Absolutely.
Like fam, bro, I'm about to talk so much cash. Like, oh, you know you done fucked up, right?
You know you done fucked up.
Hey, hey, that's incredible, man. And honestly, I told y'all, don't let us win a fucking championship. And y'all done fucked up. And let us win a championship.
