In this episode of the Draymond Green Show, host Draymond Green interviews Hall‑of‑Fame guard Isiah Thomas. Thomas explains why Kevin Durant chose Golden State, emphasizing that Durant was drawn to the Warriors’ free‑flow, “right‑way” style of basketball championed by Steve Kerr. He argues that without Durant’s 2016‑17 arrival, the 73‑9 Warriors would likely be remembered only for their historic regular‑season record and a 3‑1 NBA Finals collapse, whereas Durant’s presence helped the franchise secure two championships and cement a Hall‑of‑Fame‑level dynasty. Draymond echoes these points, describing how Durant forced the Warriors to evolve their iconic pick‑and‑roll, adding new counters against double teams and preserving the team’s offensive identity. Both guests credit Kerr’s coaching philosophy for fostering trust and flexibility, and they reference Isiah Thomas’s own championship experience at Indiana. The conversation also includes a brief DraftKings March Madness promotion, which is peripheral to the main discussion.
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I'm gonna go one step further, right? You know that I've gotten to know Kevin Durant extremely well now. He's one of my favorite dudes. Now, right? Now I understand why Kevin Durant left OKC to come to Golden State. It had nothing to do with, you know, I don't like this guy. Kevin Durant being a savant, as smart as he is, you, Steph, Klay, moving, reading, reacting, playing, that That's the way he wants to play. That's the way we all want to play. Steve Kerr, brilliant enough, and he trusts y'all enough, and keyword that I'm getting ready to say, he trusts his teaching enough that he gives you the freedom, the freedom to play. So therefore, You never know if Steph gonna start in the corner, if he gonna start on the wing, if he gonna start on the box, you know, you never know. So the perfect randomness of play that Bob Knight invented, that I came up in, that I won championships at Indiana, that's the way you play and that's makes it so difficult. So—
Yeah.
Yeah, it's a beautiful thing to watch.
I appreciate that history lesson. And I'll be honest with you, I can go, well, speaking of Kevin Durant, I'm happy to hear you say that because I've known this all along, right? Like he wanted to come here, he loved the style of play. He would always say like, yo, I just wanna play basketball the right way. Like I haven't played the game of basketball the right way. And I don't know how long, and I just wanna play the right way when he was coming here. And there was this whole, you know, uproar, Draymond was recruited and this, that, and he— no, dude wanted to play the game the right way. And so, in saying that, probably didn't make the right decision in leaving because not many teams play like that. It's gonna be hard to find that. Although I think with Book, you know, Book likes to play the game the right way. And so I think they're finding some of that in Phoenix, but it's never quite gonna be this because I think we do play a different brand of basketball. But before we get outta here—
Wait, wait, before you come in, wait, let me make a bold statement here.
Yes, sir.
And I hope this don't upset you, but it—
It won't upset me at all.
I'm giving y'all a compliment. Before Kevin Durant arrived in Golden State, y'all were on the verge of, psh, and being remembered as the team that went 73-9 and lost to a Cleveland Cavaliers team in the finals, 3-1. You up 3-1.— and probably one of the biggest collapse in NBA Finals history from a '73 and '9 historical team. Kevin Durant comes that summer and really saves y'all basketball legacy. And you win 2 championships after that. And now you're the Golden State Warriors dynasty that you're gonna go into the Hall of Fame on and everything else. It is cemented because if Durant don't come that summer and you guys are remembered as the '73 and '9 team that lost 3 to 1 in the NBA Finals, all of your legacies are different. So all of you with Kevin Durant, y'all are, you know, Pshh! Right? And that was a powerful moment in sport that he should be rewarded for, but also your team should be rewarded for accepting a juggernaut like that and being able to incorporate it. And what y'all did was beautiful, man. It was beautiful. So I hope that didn't hurt you in any way, but I did want to acknowledge— No. Him and y'all for that beautiful moment.
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Yeah, no, it didn't hurt me at all. I've actually gone public and said before like, yo, K coming here opened up a totally different thing. Like, you know, we were destroying everybody. The most feared action in the NBA was a Steph Curry, Draymond Green pick and roll. 2015, 2016, it was the most devastating action you can get to in the NBA during that time. Teams started figuring out how to guard it. When teams started figuring out how to guard that, you know what we did? Kevin Durant came in and was like, "Oh, you figured that out? All right, well, let's go see you figure this out now. We gonna get the ball to this dude, he gonna go score." Yeah. And if you dare send a double team, you're only gonna double off me. You're never leaving Steph. You're never leaving Klay. So if you send a double team, you're only helping off me. Well, now we gotta counter to that too. You go double off of me, I'mma catch. And if I'm not shooting, I'm handing off to one of these guys and they shooting your eyeball off. And so we came up with counters to all of that. And I think, you know, I am never one that's gonna be like, yo, 'Kay got championships because, because he came here. Like, no, he helped us get championships. Now what I will say is he never gets the championship if he doesn't come here because I just don't foresee that happening anywhere else or else we would've saw it again happen somewhere else. But it was a match made in heaven. You had us in the way we played our brand of basketball and him wanting to play that style of basketball. You have a face of a franchise in Steph Curry who's so secure in himself that he's not worried about another juggernaut. Not coming over and what that does to him or his legacy or how that, you know, makes him where his standing is in the franchise. And so all of those things coming together, I agree with you. Like it was a, it was absolutely insane. Now what I will say is definitely Blue 3-1 lead. No one likes to talk about me getting suspended game 5 where them boys was about to get a gentleman's suite. No one likes to talk about that. And it's okay. I'm cool with that. I don't mind. It's totally fine. But I am not one of those people who's on the bandwagon of like, Kevin didn't do nothing. Kevin doesn't deserve them rings. Like, you don't win 2 Finals MVPs if you don't deserve rings. That's just kind of a dumb thing to say.
You know? Yeah, so I'm with you. I'm gonna hit you with this, right? Because they always talk about the Lakers and when they three-peated, but they never mentioned They got that Phantom foul. So that gentleman—
Absolutely.
So the Detroit Pistons and Isiah Thomas, we should have been the first one to three-peat in our era. The other thing I do want to give Steve Kerr some credit because The brilliant mind and the way he's, he molded and got all of you to trust and believe that this was a great way to play. You know, so all the things that you said, I do wanna add Steve Kerr on top of that because coaching really does matter. And he was the perfect coach for all of you.
