Draymond Green reacts to Ja Morant embracing a villain persona in the NBA, praising his heart despite being undersized against Anthony Edwards. Green attributes the shift toward anti-hero images among younger players to video games, streaming, and social media, contrasting them with old-school players like Kevin Durant and Jayson Tatum.
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Man, I loved the other day watching Ja and Ant play against each other in a high stakes game. Guard each other in a high stakes game. I told y'all a couple weeks ago, man, my favorite two young guys to take the trash talking throne is those two guys. And they went out there and guarded each other. Like, let's face it, Ja not fit to guard Ant.
Right.
And when I say not fit, like Ja—
He a little dude.
Ja's small, man.
Yeah, he a little dude.
I don't care how you shake, he got the heart of a lion. If you ever see Ja, he's small, which makes what he does even more impressive, which makes the weight that he carry even more impressive, 'cause Ja ain't a big dude at all, man. For him to even go out there and say, "No, I'm gonna take on the challenge and guard Ant." That to me just says something about his heart, about why he is who he is. Because that matchup ain't for him, man. On the flip side, Ant a big-ass dude. Like—
Right.
Ant, 6'5", 6'6", 220. Like, solid. And so just the size advantage in itself, Like, that made it all the more impressive of even Ja going to guard him now. I think when you Ant-Man, what he has to look at next in his game is, all right, I gotta get off the ball now and maybe go get some post work. You know what I'm saying? He get in that post, he got Draymond Green on him, he get in that post, you can make it hard on Ja. Now, in saying that, at a certain point in the game, Ja switched off and went and guarded somebody else. 'cause Scottie Pippen Jr. was doing a great job on Ant, you know what I'm saying? And so—
And he can defend.
He can. And he went to guard Ant. But man, just the respect that I, I been had respect for both of them young fellas, but you can, I gained even more respect just watching them come out in that meaningful game. Talking about a rivalry. You had everybody praising Ja, he next up and he the next face of the league. And then, you know, he had his situation and now it's like he, you know, everybody threw him by the wayside. You had—
Yeah, he like the villain.
Yeah, you got young Ant-Man who like, I don't even want that. Like, I don't even want the face of the league, but it's that type of, that level of talent. And in a meaningful game for playoff standards, they guarded each other. So I respected that.
Is there a thing with this younger generation With not wanting to be the face, more so want to be the villain and take on a villain persona. I was thinking about that the other day, like, when Ant said that, like, Ant don't want to be, like, a hero, like, "Oh, I'm Superman," you know, "I'm the great American cover boy." I think he wants to be the villain, right? I think Jah, as he starts to embrace I'm the villain, he starts to fill out his personality on the court and his brand on the court. But I think these young dudes, they like being the villain.
Mm-hmm.
And I think they wanna find who's the target. Like, who's the number one target guy outside of, I mean, you think like a Wimby, like they don't wanna be that. They wanna be like this, they wanna be the villains, like the upset guy. The shit talker, right?
I just think for them it's more like they'd rather be the people's champs.
Right.
But you look at where they both come from, it makes sense. You know what I'm saying? Like, they'd rather be the people's champs. And listen, I get it. I respect it. To each his own. I hate the whole conversation of face of the league as if like the league just say, okay, it's you now, here you go. Like, I hate that whole thing. Now that I got that out, when you speak on being the face of the NBA, there's just so much that comes with that. And in the day and age that we live in, there's even more that comes with that today than it did 15 years ago. Like by a long shot, you know, just your life in general, there's just so much more that comes with it. And so you gotta think, man, most of these dudes, they're young, they love video games, they love—
Yeah.
They play basketball, they play video games. And the generation that they come from, anything that takes you away from that, they don't really want it. Like—
Right.
That's just the generation we're living in where streaming, it's video games, it's, you know, That is the generation that we keep speaking of on face of the NBA. Like that's where we are as far as age goes. And like when I look at KD, I don't think KD ever wanted to be the face of the league. But guess what? KD is more that generation of talking about when it comes to video games and like, K wanna play basketball and play video games and not do much else. That is this generation though now, guys, to the extreme.
Yeah. Man.
And so I think, you know, no one talks about that side of it. It's like the life side of it. Like how your life looks on a day-to-day basis. And why some of these guys don't want that. But you look at the guys who do want it, Wimby is more old school. Like if you listen to anybody talk about, I talked to CP after we played him in San Antonio about Wimby. Like if you talk to anybody about, he read a book every day. Like he's more old school. Jason Tatum is more old school, you know what I'm saying? Jason Tatum isn't like— he's more of an older soul. Those are the guys that want it though, you know what I'm saying? But they don't— their lives are different than, say, a Ja or Ant, you know, or most of these young guys. Like, JT got a couple kids, you know what I'm saying? He— his life is a little different where he don't play a bunch of video games. Like, I think there's a philosophical difference that everybody's not talking about. Everybody's just looking at it through one lens, which is basketball.
Yep. And then you have Jaylen Brown, right? Who's a little different, who wants it, but is also, you know, not a media darling, right? So, you know, the media wants a great superhero, right? But the people always love a good villain. Absolutely. That's the persona that even the face of the NBA has to have. They have— everybody thinks that they're a villain. Everybody wants to be the disruptor, the underdog, and you have to have that mentality. And I think, you know, that's what is required. It's the culture. It's the culture. They're a part of the culture. They're part of hip-hop. They're part of what's trending. They're part of social media. You know, when you look at somebody like Ja Morant, right? And the celebrations, he's not that person. That is just what the culture is, right? Football players do it, you know, kids do it. But at the same time, there is a great responsibility to know what you doing. But from that villain persona, I think the league, you need that controversy, but it's not that these guys are like the, like bad guys, right?
Mm-hmm. No, that's a fact. They're not bad guys at all. Number one, you don't reach the level of success that they've reached just being bad guys. Like, it's hard at, in this day and age between social media, all these different things to be a bad guy and kind of reach this point, you know? So they're not bad guys. They're successful. Black men.
Yes.
You know, like people go at you so much.
Mm-hmm.
That like you almost get a villain mindset anyway, just because like you're subject to people going at you 24/7 to where you kind of have to almost like take on that just to push through it.
You know what I'm saying?
Like you're not gonna keep just coming at me like that way. And so, you know, even in Ja, you know, with his new celebration, which to me looked like—
That's hilarious. Hey bro, that is hysterical. Look at Shaq, look.
But you know what I'm trying to say?
Oh, he probably play Call of Duty. You know, he probably be on Call of Duty. Like you said, they gaming, they on Call of Duty. They got all the antics, you know what I'm saying?
That man said, but I'm taking my words, I'm taking my words, I'm throwing them out there and then I'm blocking out the noise. Listen, I respect it, Jah. Do what you gotta do, brother. If you just throwing your words out there and blocking out the noise, what they gonna say?
They can't say nothing.
They can't tell you, can't throw your words out there and not listen to anybody, Jah.
That was, that was the sickest bar ever. Oh, that's real player right there.
Gotta give it to him on that one. That's real player right there, Playboy.
