Kevin Durant's Burner EXPOSED? Chris Paul Retires & NBA All Star Game Takeaways

What's up everybody? Welcome back to the Draymond Green Show. On today's show, I'll talk Chris Paul's retirement, KD's alleged burner account, another one, all before presenting the third edition of the monthly Draymond Green Awards. So let's get right into it. [MUSIC] The Draymond Green Show is proudly presented by Grooms. Grooms proves that you can do the least and still feel the most, thanks to a delicious daily habit that does the heavy lifting. Save up to 52% off with code Draymond at Grooms.co. That's code Draymond at Grooms.co. I first want to start by thanking Skip Bayless. Skip came on this last Thursday to kick off All-Star Weekend. I did a live show. In LA at Odyssey Soundstage, and Skip was the guest. And Skip came on, apparently he missed that it was a live audience, you know, so I'd imagine that was a little, make you a little uncomfortable. But like a true champ, he continued on with it, and we went through with it, and we had— Yeah. An incredible show. So I first wanna thank Skip. Like, what an incredible episode just to learn about him, to learn his background. It's always, like, crazy when the stars align and, like, when you hear people's story. Like, Skip Bayless has arguably created sports debate television in the way that it's consumed today. One of the pioneers of that, of how big that's gotten. He's one of the pioneers of, and as he said, he, which I imagined he would, he thought he was coming on the show to do that. And I wanted him to most importantly come on the show to receive the respect that he's due as someone who's— Draymond Green. Taking up a career in media, you know, I respect those that came before me. And so I most importantly wanted him to feel and receive the respect that he's due. Like I told him on stage, there was no chance that I was gonna come on that stage, on that podcast, on that microphone disrespecting him in any way. I wanted to get to know him. I wanted to— Mm-hmm. Lift up the curtain, see what's behind the curtain, you know, get to know the man that is Skip Bayless, you know. I actually met Ernestine first, his wife, and she was amazing. And she's like, "Draymond, you're family to us. You gotta come by the house." And like, she was incredible and just a sweetheart. And then I met Skip and He was amazing. It was great to meet him. We talked for a quick minute, didn't wanna kind of kill the chemistry that we would have on the stage, or not kill the chemistry, but you kind of want that to develop on the stage, not backstage. You wanna keep it authentic. And so we talked for a quick minute and then he went back to his green room. I stayed in mine and then the show started. And I'll be honest, I was nervous as hell. Extremely nervous. Like, you know, I take this serious and learning the media space and trying to get better and better. And when you have one of the pioneers on stage with you, the nerves that I felt was like I was about to play in some big basketball game. Like that's how it felt. And so I had to, voice was quivering a little bit. I had to settle in a bit. Then once the interview got started, chemistry was incredible, but he was amazing. And learning his story and hearing about his teacher that made him start essentially doing, taking up journalism and to become who he became. It's insane. And for her to have the opportunity to witness him going into the Hall of Fame, like just all of those things, just things that I never knew about Skip Bayless. I'm not sure if all of you out there knew about Skip Bayless, but— Yeah. It was great to take a look behind the curtain and get to know the man just a little bit. You know, so I enjoyed that. I'm extremely grateful for Skip coming on the show. He was extremely generous with his time. What was slated to be a 1-hour show went 2 hours and 20 minutes. He was extremely gracious. Forever grateful for the opportunity to sit up there and learn from a titan. Like even when the show first started, he kind of took it over a little bit. And it was an incredible experience for me just watching him do his thing, you know, but then also you gotta, and hosting a show, you gotta know how to get the show back and keep the show on the track that you wanna go on. So such an incredible experience. As I said, I'm extremely grateful for Skip coming on the show. Not knowing what I'd say or do, and to be so gracious with his time. Can't thank him enough. And as I said, that was Thursday leading into All-Star weekend, which also led us into Chris Paul retiring. Shout out to CP, man. Had the opportunity to be CP's teammate for a year. One of my favorite teammates of all time. Just the way he prepares, all the knowledge that he has on and off the court. You know, just the way he see the game of basketball and the game of life, you know, just having the opportunity to learn from C, but to get to know him, man, complete honor. And you know, we still stay in contact today. And to see him retire, you know, I saw Donovan Mitchell said he hated the way that it ended for CP and how, and I won't get off into that because then the story becomes about that when in reality, in reality, the story should be about how great of a player Chris Paul was over his 21 seasons in the NBA. So just to have an opportunity to compete with, against a competitor like CP, you know, you go back to those Clipper days where it was just this all the time. And then the Houston days where it was just this. And Phoenix, you know, where no matter what team he was on, it was always gonna be this. And then, like I said, to have the opportunity to be his teammate, Was just an amazing experience. One that I wish would've lasted for longer than just a year. But, you know, he, what an incredible player, incredible guard at his size. You know, being second all time in assists by only to John Stockton, second all time in steals only to John Stockton. Just the career that he had, the impact that he had. I always said a lot of people would say, "Oh man, 'cause CP," hadn't won a championship that he's not a winner. And when you compete against him, what he did with teams, like, was one of the ultimate winners. You just need so much luck and things to go your way in order to win a championship. But man, CP, one of the ultimate winners. Incredible to compete against him. Incredible to call him a friend. Lucky to call him a friend. And, you know, just to— Yeah. Play a part in his career. And not that I played a part in making his career, but being a competitor, you know, in his career, helping as he built his story. Man, it was just incredible to watch. Job well done, C. Enjoy retirement. Enjoy Lil C games. Enjoy Cam games. Enjoy Jay. They've given you 21 years of support. 21 years. And now this is your chance to go support them in all that they're doing. And I know that you gonna do that to the utmost and to the best of your ability coming from the parents that you come from, though the brother that you have and just the way you was brought up and what matters to you. I know that that's what's next for you. So I'm looking forward to seeing you in that era, my brother. First ballot Hall of Famer, all of that. Me saying that don't mean nothing. No. One of the 75 greatest players of all time. I tip my cap that I don't have on. Good job, well done, C. Much love and enjoy retirement, brother. Well deserved. I will see you in Cabo. And as I said, with that leading into All-Star weekend, we then got into All-Star weekend. And of course everybody's talking about the new format. Oh man, the game was better. It was this, it was that. It was a little better. But it wasn't quite the All-Star Game still. Wasn't quite the East versus West All-Star Game that everyone once loved. You know, we've gotten to the point of trying all these gimmicks and what everyone loved was the East versus the West competing it out. So can you get those guys to compete at the level or not as East or West? Because the round robin thing, like, that's not the real All-Star Game. Like, it's just, it's like taking an entire basketball game and changing all the rules and then keeping everything. Like, it just doesn't quite work, you know? But the game was a little more exciting than it was. Unfortunately, the OGs kind of got screwed over with the sit for 20, 25 minutes going into that last game. —there was no way they were getting back loose and prepared to go against them young fellas in that game. Like that, and so that right there alone, I think threw it off because the last championship game wasn't great. It was a blowout. And in large part due to you weren't gonna get those guys back loose like that. That just wasn't gonna happen. Ant-Man MVP, well deserved. Ant-Man played extremely well, made sure that Team USA came out with the win. They were Team Stripes, I believe. But more importantly, it was USA versus the world. And I saw a lot of people like, "Oh, this person didn't play, that person didn't play." I'm like, "Yo, Steph Curry didn't play. What we talking about?" And we saw what Steph Curry do on the stage versus the world. Yeah. We know what that look like. We've seen that movie before. Oh man, this person didn't play that, but Steph Curry didn't play. What are we talking about? Enough said. So anyway, I think it was a little more exciting, kind of on the heels of the Four Nations thing that the NHL did last year. It was a little more exciting, but where the NHL's different is again, it was, 4 teams playing against each other in proper games. This round robin thing, little gimmicky. And if you remember when they first added the charity component some years back, the first game, I think that was 2022. The first game, the first year that they did that, it helped. The next year, ah, it was back to what it was. You know, because again, it's like when you playing in a playoff series. I remember when we were playing OKC and we got down 3-1, we were doing this gimmick defense where we were leaving Andre Roberson completely open and not guarding him and like helping OKC. And it worked, and Russ, and it worked for one game, but it's a gimmick. So you eventually figured the gimmick out. Like we've had teams running gimmick things against us for many years. And like eventually you figure it out and you can't win with the gimmick. So when we got down 3-1, we went back to just guarding them normal and we won 3 games in a row. And that's how these game, these games is like when you put the gimmick there, like the gimmick works once, but then it doesn't quite always work again. And so if you go back to this again, I think you're going to have more of the same of what you had last year. And so get back to East and West or nothing at all. But overall, I guess the gimmick worked a tad bit. Great. Y'all got it? Happy, everybody? Boom. There you have it. A lot of talk from the NBA and NBC on adding a 1v1 and a 2v2 tournament. For All-Star Weekend next year. Highly likely that it's due to the success of the Unrivaled One-on-One Tournament, that Chelsea Gray came away as the queen of the court. Chelsea Gray dominated and came away with the One-on-One title. And it was exciting to watch, I will give you that. For years, I think like the dunk contest is over. Like that thing gotta go, right? If you add one-on-one, king of the hill is what we used to call it. One-on-one tournament, I think that would be exciting. A 2 versus 2 tournament, that could be exciting. I don't think you really need a 2 versus 2. I think 1 versus 1 is what people care about. But maybe, you know, you can do it a little NBA Jam-ish with the 2 versus 2. I get that idea. But 1 versus 1 seems like a lot. But the dunk contest, can it? It's over for it. Shout out to the young fella who won, but it's over for the dunk contest. Just can it. Make it a 1 versus 1. I think that'll be exciting. Also coming out over the All-Star weekend was KD's alleged burner account. The burner account is called @gethigher77. Some of the things that was said was, "You're a franchise player, can't shoot or defend. That's a way bigger issue than my turnovers," referring to Shingun apparently. "Can't trust Jabari Smith. Make a shot, get a stop." He's lowkey bye. There's multiple things said on this account that are a bit detrimental to KD and just who he is and how he's viewed. I don't know that these are true. Again, these are alleged things that KD said. His comment today was that— I'm not discussing anything about Twitter. My teammates and I know we've been locked in all season. To me personally, I am one that when things come up about me or I've done, I like to address them. Either it's me or it's not me. You know, I like to address 'em because I think when you don't address things, you leave it up for debate. You leave it up for people to decide what they want to decide. And I personally just don't think that this is something that you can just allow people to decide what they wanna decide because it involves so many other people, including people that you have to go to war with this year. You know, and so with that being said, I don't know that it's something that you could just not say anything about, but I'm not in that locker room, you know, so I don't know how their locker room operates. But I think if, you know, it's our locker room, it's, you know, it's probably something that you need to address because more so, and they may have addressed it behind closed doors, but again, when stuff happened in the public eye, it's hard to just address it behind closed doors because everybody again still have their opinion, which mean everyone's going home to different opinions, which mean how they feel about certain things can ultimately change and fester depending on what you're being told. And so, I personally would address it publicly if it's a public thing and it's taken on the life that it's taken. But to each his own. But I'll tell you what, if it is, I don't know how you walk back into practice. I mean, walking back into practice after the break, almost you walk into the locker room, it probably feel like a Key and Peele sketch. Just like a little awkward. Like, what do you do? Uh, what's up, bro? I don't know. Uh, yeah. But anyway, these are alleged. Um, it's alleged to be KD's burner account. Maybe one day we'll know the truth. Maybe we already know the truth. Who knows? I don't know. But still got a lot more to talk about with our monthly awards. I'll be back after the break. I'll present the third edition of the monthly Draymond Green Awards. Be back right after this. I'll be honest, healthy habits have never been more important. So this year, I actually found a routine that's much easier to stick to. Grooms. Feels like doing the least, works like doing the most. A simple, delicious daily habit that makes a real difference without overhauling my life. If you haven't heard me talk about Grooms before, they're a convenient formula packed into a daily snack pack of gummies. I love that it's not just a multivitamin, a greens gummy, or a prebiotic. It's all of those things and more at a fraction of the price. And the best part, they taste amazing, so it feels like a treat every day. Each pack is vegan, nut-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, and free from artificial colors and flavors. With 20+ vitamins and minerals, 60 ingredients including nutrient-dense and whole food ingredients, and 6 grams of prebiotic fiber, that's more than 2 cups of broccoli. Grunz makes healthy easy. Bonus, it's HSA/FSA eligible, so you can even use your healthcare funds to cover it. Kick your new year off right and save up to 52% off with code Draymond at grunz.co. That's code Draymond at grunz.co. As promised, now we will get into the monthly Draymond Draymond Green Awards. And for starters, we will kick it off with our first team of the month, starting off with LeBron James, uh, coming off the sciatica injury, had to have a strong month and a half or so to get back in All-Star contention because it did not sound like they were gonna do him any favors. And he had some very strong games, uh, played well, started looking real athletic again. So Bron is on the first team. Kawhi Leonard. Kawhi Leonard. Draymond Green, of course, on the first team. Been probably the best player in the NBA over the last 2 months. He's been incredible. Just watching the resurgence, been great. Cade Cunningham, best record in the East, still dominating, playing great. Assist numbers are up there, points are up there, team success is up there. Cade Cunningham for sure. Victor Wembanyama, after getting back from injury, he's been dominant. He came off the bench for a while, got back in the star lineup. Continue to be more dominant on both sides of the floor. I think Victor Wembanyama. And last but not least on our first team of the month is Jaylen Brown. Still got the Celtics in second place in the East. Still has it a realistic chance and realistic reason for Jayson Tatum to possibly come back this year due to the incredible play of Jaylen Brown and what he's done in keeping the Boston Celtics in contention to win the East. So Jalen Brown rounds out our first team of the month. He's been incredible. All-Star game participant, Jalen Brown. He will round out the first team. We'll now get into our DG Certified Defender of the Month. And our Certified Defender of the Month is Scottie Barnes. I think Scottie Barnes has been incredible all year defensively. I think Scottie Barnes' name should be in the Defensive Player of the Year category. Legitimately guards 1 through 5, can guard any guard, can guard any big. He's learned how to anchor a defense a bit more, which is a skill. And I think he's been studying a bit, 'cause he's, he's figured some of that out. But Scottie Barnes has been incredible on the defensive end. And I also don't think he gets enough credit for as good of a defender as he is. So Scottie Barnes is our Certified Defender of the Month. And obviously Toronto still having success as a team as well. Mm-hmm. And I think that's in large part due to Scottie Barnes, who's been playing a lot of 5, anchoring the defense. As you know, we have 2 awards in the most improved category. One is the Made the Jump Award, a good player who is now really good, you know, has made that jump to another tier. And we're gonna go with Sadiq Bae. Sadiq Bae is averaging 21.2 points —per game. This is a guy coming off of an ACL injury. And, you know, he was kind of a throw-in into the trade. And he's been incredible for New Orleans. Yes, they've had a tough season. But he's been the one that's been consistent all year. Sadiq Bae has made the jump. And then it's also an Out of Nowhere Award, which is a bench guy who's now a real contributor. And that has to go to none other than Payton Watson. Averaging 21.9 points in January, 18.7 points in February. He has been a guy who came outta nowhere. Joker went down with an injury and he stepped his game up. They kept Denver, him and Jamal Murray kept Denver right where they need to be in the running until Joker got back. And it was in large part due to the play of Peyton Watson. Yeah. He has put Denver in a real situation as his contract comes up this year. Payton Watson will be one of the most touted free agents and is due because he came out of nowhere. And he is our Outta Nowhere Award, most improved category, Outta Nowhere Award player of the month. Payton Watson has been absolutely incredible. And I think if you've watched Payton Watson over the years, you could kind of see like that he was special. I remember watching Payton Watson's pre-draft interview with the Warriors and chopping it up with him after like, man, I don't know where are you gonna go, but wherever you go, Work your tail off, 'cause you gonna have a real chance. And man, that love been there since the young fella came into the league. Always show that love and happy to see him doing what he doing. He gonna get a big payday this year and it's gonna be well deserved. Our Firestarter of the Month goes to none other than Isaiah Stewart. You suspended for 7 games. You leave the bench to go get into a full-scale fight. You have to be the Firestarter of the Month. Thank you. So that is Isaiah Stewart, no question. Honorable mention, Dylan Brooks, getting 16 technicals and suspended before the All-Star break, you have to be a fire starter. Dylan Brooks is suspended their first game out of All-Star break tomorrow. And then he'll, every subsequent tech from here on out for the rest of the season, meaning he's at 16, he's suspended. He gets to 18, that's another game. 20, that's another game. We'll see how it finishes out for Dylan Brooks for the rest of the year, but he is currently suspended for 1 game for accumulation of technicals before the All-Star break. You my friend, not my friend, but you get what I'm saying. Honorable mention goes to Dylan Brooks. Our must-see TV player of the month, the resurgence of Kawhi Leonard playing at the level that he looked like in Toronto. He looks fast, he looks bouncy. He looks aggressive. He's carrying the team. We know Kawhi can carry a team. We've seen him do it before. And he's carrying the Clippers right now. Was shocked that they made the move with the way he was playing, but, or the moves, but Kawhi Leonard has been the must-see TV player of the month. He has given you buckets however you want it. Off the dribble, Tracy. Catch and shoot, Tracy. Off the pin down, Tracy. Mid-range, bucket. Catch, mid-range, bucket. To the cup, off the dribble, 3-shot fakes, bucket. To the cup, dunk on you, bucket. Free throw line, 95%, bucket. Kawhi Leonard has been must-see television. He is our must-see TV player of the month. The KD Just a Hooper Award of the Month will go to someone that As you know, like no matter the circumstance, no matter what was going on, they just hoop. And that's what KD is. That's what you hear everyone say about him. No matter what, he just hoop. He love basketball. He just hoop. And our KD, the KD Just a Hooper Award of the Month goes to Damian Lillard. Guy who hasn't suited up all season, coming off an Achilles injury and goes in the, has the balls to go into the 3-point contest having not played a game. I heard the idea came as a joke from Michael Levine, which is very fitting. And Dame crazy enough to go do it. And he wins his third 3-point championship, 3-point contest champion, third one. Yeah. Incredible to see Dame out there in a Portland jersey. Like to go win that, man, it was absolutely beautiful. So shout out to Dame. He is the KD Just a Hooper Award of the month because regardless of the circumstance, which is coming off a torn Achilles, that brother still went and did what Dame Dolla do, which is shoot that pill. So shout out to Dame Dolla. He is our KD Just a Hooper Award of the month. Award of the Month winner. And last but not least, our Nick Young Swing Player of the Month goes to Keldon Johnson. Keldon has been great off the bench for the San Antonio Spurs. I think Keldon should be the front runner for Sixth Man of the Year. You talking team number 2 in the West. Uh, KJ's been there the entire rebuild. Um, gone from a starter to what looked like the youngest promising player they had to like now coming off the bench and he's taken on that role. He is a moral compass for that team. He's the guy that a lot of people look up to on that team and he's been great and they've been playing great. So Keldon Johnson is our Nick Young Swing Player of the Month, making it happen for his team, being that key piece for his team, swinging the games in their favor just like he did against us last week. Keldon Johnson is— Keldon Johnson. The Nick Young Swing Player of the Month. [MUSIC] That is it for our awards for this month. We will get back at those next month. And next up we have Golden Days, a lot of people's favorite segment on the show. Send your moments to draymondgreen@audacy.com. And from Tof, what's up Draymond? A slept on NBA what if that I've heard discussed is what if Kawhi never got injured in game 1 of the 2017 Western Conference Finals against you guys? In your mind, would that Spurs team have really pushed you guys had he stayed healthy that entire season? Listen, I think a healthy Kawhi gives any team a chance. I personally don't think they would've had a chance to beat us. You know, they were ahead going into halftime. We were also a team that in the third quarter you get mopped. And those are facts, you know? And so, no, I don't think, you know, the series would've gone any differently. I think, you know, they probably would've been a little more competitive, but I think the series still goes in our favor the way it did. And if we were gonna sit and talk about those what-ifs, then let's talk about what if Kevin Durant never got hurt against Kawhi? And what if Klay Thompson never got hurt against Kawhi? So, you know, I try not to get off into the what-ifs. You know, what if I didn't get suspended from Game 5 of 2000? '16 Finals, right? Like, I try not to get into the what-ifs because there's a million of 'em and we'll be what-ifing all day. And if if was a fifth, we'd all be drunk right now. And I am not drunk. I am fresh off vacation, back practicing. So that's my story to your what-if. But yes, I just don't think that team could have beat us. You know, they were having a good game, but game 1 has never decided any series. And like I said, When it comes to the third quarters, there was no one getting to it like the Dubs get to it in third quarter. Your team be looking at each other as soon as the blitz start like, "Oh, here we go." See they shoulder slump? And here come them Dubs. So, I don't think so. But we'll never know. I wanna thank you all again for tuning in to the Draymond Green Show. We are back in action against the Celtics. Tomorrow. 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 Odyssey. Maura Curran, Josephina Francis, Hillary Shuff, Eric Donnelly, Kate Rose, Colin Gaynor, and Jake Gally. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]