LeBron's suspension, Durant's skin care + JJ Redick interview | The Draymond Green Show

What's up everybody? This is Draymond Green welcoming you back to the second episode of The Draymond Green Show. Man, I am extremely excited about this episode. Obviously, as we spoke on before, this will definitely be a basketball-heavy podcast and shit got a little spicy last few days in the NBA. Where, you know, there's no surprise that King James got into it with a young fella, Isaiah Stewart, from Detroit, and it got a little bloody. It got a little physical, but we'll talk about that. I guess you can say it got a little physical with all the antics, as you can see which way I'm leaning in the whole discussion by that statement. Yeah. All of the antics. As a fan of the game of basketball, that shit was crazy. And as an actual player, come on. And why I say come on is because if you watch that video, by the way, Isaiah Stewart is probably the strongest guy in the NBA. What is he, 19, 20 years old? Reincarnation of Ben Wallace there in Detroit. So going back, obviously LeBron swung his arm and he bloodied Isaiah. And I mean, as someone who's had his fair share of shit throughout the course of my career, I personally can't say LeBron did that on purpose. And here's why I say that. Did he swing his arm on purpose? Yes, absolutely. Was he trying to get Isaiah Stewart from hooking off his arm? Absolutely. Was he trying to fucking bloody his eye and have blood running down his face like he just got his ass kicked by Bud Crawford? I don't think so. I just personally don't think LeBron's intentions was to actually hit him in the eye to actually make him bleed, to which then led to all of that. And here's why. You have to be so accurate and just swinging your arm in the heat of the battle to actually connect and have this guy bloody the way he was. Now again, I 100% think Bron was swinging his arm to get him off him.

Mm-hmm.

Of course, that's a natural reaction. Kind of like my reaction when LeBron stepped over me, you know, like someone— it's a natural reaction when someone's grabbing you, someone's over you. It's a natural thing, you know? And so I 100% don't think that LeBron did that on purpose. But as I said, he definitely was getting the kid off of him. All right, now we move forward. In the little scrum. And my second thoughts were, y'all matched up man to man, you know, man to man, each other's face. And to me it looked like LeBron is saying, "Hey man, my bad. Didn't, you know, didn't try to do that." And the conversation seemed to be—

Uh-huh.

A little under control. You know, he's pissed off, he turns around, Bron standing there, Bron's like, "Yo, my bad," blah, blah, blah. And then this is where it got spicy. You have the teammates come running in, holding the guy back, pulling him away from LeBron. And I think they may have made him feel like he should be upset. Because that's when he went apeshit. He went apeshit right after the teammates start coming in to grab him. He looked as if he was just going to have a conversation with Bron in that moment and they kind of got to get it figured all out. Then everyone runs in, he turns into the fucking Incredible Hulk and starts running over everybody. You know, if you were going to do all of that, then that should have just happened when y'all were face to face. Like you had your opportunity to do whatever it was that you were going to do. And that didn't happen. That time period is gone. Let's move forward. So for everyone out there, for my fellow NBA guys out there, for Isaiah Stewart, As someone who's been fined about $1 million in my career, I wouldn't waste my time if I were you, and money. Because unless you're going to do something right in that moment that you and LeBron were face to face, the rest of the shit's just window dressing. And the rest of it is,— it leads to the internet going crazy. And most importantly, what it leads to is it leads to a fucking 2-game suspension, which is 2 game checks. And you know, there's this common misconception of once a kid comes into the NBA that they're rich. That's bullshit. Because number 1, you have agent fees. Most importantly, you have taxes. You have cost of living, you have, for most of us, figuring out how money and finances actually work. You know, so you have all of these things, you have family, you have all of these things to where those first couple years, especially for me who was a second round pick, you just don't have a bunch of money. And to get suspended, for 2 games. I'm not sure Isaiah Stewart's salary, but I'd be willing to bet he probably won't get a check for the next week. I mean, for the next 2 to 4 weeks. And if so, it will be significantly less. I do think this is the last that we'll see Isaiah Stewart getting into it with someone like the caliber of King James or some other guys in this league. Because as, as Gilbert Arenas said in his in his post the other day. There's just some guys you shouldn't get into it with. And Isaiah, take it from me. I got into it with LeBron James about roughly 5 years ago and it didn't go so well for me. And not that Bron kicked my ass, but he did kick my ass. Not physically though. He did kick my ass because he came back from a 3-1 deficit to win a world championship. And that shit still stings today. So as someone who has gotten into it with King James on the floor, Isaiah, just a little word of advice. It's not really worth the time. It's not really worth the effort and the energy that he spent to get through all of those people only to end up paying 2 game checks. We can all sit and say, "Oh, how did he get suspended for 2 games and LeBron got suspended for 1? LeBron started, blah, blah, blah." That shit doesn't matter. That is the world that we live in. Shit is earned. And I think LeBron James personally should not have been suspended for one game because he is LeBron James. And yes, he did hit the dude in the face. He got kicked out of a game. Let's just leave it at that because I personally don't think— that's just, that's the world we live in, man.

So.

If you didn't think LeBron deserved the suspension, were you surprised then? 'Cause I feel like a lot of people were surprised that he got suspended for a game, especially considering considering the game he's gonna miss is a national TV game at Madison Square Garden?

You know, it, it, I am not surprised that he got suspended and here's why. Adam Silver, uh, who I think is the best commissioner in sports, um, and it's not a discussion, um, Adam Silver, if I'm not mistaken, has publicly said something along the lines of, The league judges reactions on social media and everywhere else when they are deciding whether a suspension will happen, a fine will happen. Adam hasn't been shy to that, and I could be mixing my channels up, and that's something that I've heard just being in the NBA. But as a fan of this game, I'm pretty sure that's something that I've seen publicly. But that's— That's that. Like, they're going to somewhat take into account the public's reaction. And obviously the public reaction to this was huge. So I am not surprised that LeBron got suspended for a game because the public's reaction was so big to it, to the incident, and it's drawn so much attention. So because of that, I'm not surprised. But I am surprised because I just don't think LeBron James should get suspended unless it's just some shit that fucking, you know, sometimes, you know, things do get a little outta hand and then that's just that. That thing got outta hand, but from the time LeBron hit him in the face, he was kind of like, "Hey man, my bad." He stood back. He didn't continue to go. Even after Isaiah Stewart did all the running around and trying to rip through people that he did, Draymond Green. Bron just stood back there like, look at him, like, what's he doing? And so yes, I think LeBron got kicked out of the game, and like, there's his punishment. Like, you get kicked out of the game, you're getting fined there. Maybe you tack on an extra fine or something, whatever. But I personally didn't think he should have gotten suspended because he had his punishment. He hit the guy in the face, he got kicked outta the game and that's that. Now it's one thing if, you know, that officiating crew said, we're gonna give LeBron a flagrant one or we're gonna give LeBron a technical foul and he continues to play and then the league goes and review it and they say, oh no, that punishment, he should have been thrown outta that game. So because of that, we're giving him a one game suspension, then that's totally different. But I mean, he had got kicked outta the game. And I personally think he just paid for his actions. Like, you know, Isaiah Stewart went crazy after the fact and, you know, it created this whole commotion. But the reality is that like LeBron didn't go crazy. Like, so does LeBron now get in trouble because this dude start running through everybody? Like, I personally don't understand that. And so—

Yeah.

I didn't think he should have been suspended. So if I was surprised at anything, I was surprised more so at the fact of like, yes, you suspended him, but he served his punishment and that's just that. But it's funny because I was talking to my wife yesterday and we were talking about, I'm like, Damn baby, they just suspended LeBron. And we're talking about the situation. And she's like, well, can you, you're like, wouldn't it be dope if you could choose which game you get suspended for? Tell me, are you asking me? I sure wouldn't have chosen game 5. So I mean, that'd be nice. And I said, well, that would be nice, but doesn't quite work that way. It's just the next game up. And she's like, "That sucks." I said, "Well, what sucks is they're playing in the Garden and it's a national TV game. You know, it's the Knicks." And she's like, "Yeah, that sucks." She's like, "But I'm sure LeBron feels like, I've played in the Garden enough times, like, all right." But I said, "But here's what you have to take into account, baby. At the point that LeBron is at in his career, which is in year 19, He only have so many more games in the Garden. You know, like you got this one this year, which he'll now miss. So then you got year 20, who knows what's going on at that point in the season when you play in the Garden, you know? And so we've seen LeBron have monster games in the Garden and you know, we know what that stage brings out in the best. And so just to not have that opportunity to play and you only have so many more opportunities to actually be on that stage and play in the Garden. That's the part where I think, I think that really sucks. I think for me personally, as far as the Lakers go, as far as the Lakers go with making the trade for Russell Westbrook, I think they let go of KCP, Kuz, Montrezl Harrell, and bringing in Russ as a competitor. You know, I can sit here and go through it, go through an analyst, or give an analysis on the trade and how I felt and how I feel now and where they are as a team. But the reality is, as a competitor, as someone who's in the same division as them, fighting for the same goal, as someone who's on a team who's trying to get out of the Western Conference and get back to an NBA Finals, It's not really on me to decide like, oh, is this a good trade for them or is this not? I really don't give a damn. What I do care about is I immediately just start playing with the matchups. Like, okay, I'll be on AD. All right, so we'll have Wiggs on, we'll have Wiggs probably on LeBron. And if we have Wiggs on LeBron, then who, then— Draymond Green. Our next matchup, who are we putting on Russ? You know, and so I just immediately start going through the matchups and seeing how we stack up against that team. I personally think it's absolutely insane that people will start to count that team out less than 20 games into the season because it, number one, it takes time for shit to work. It takes time for a team to actually become a team. And so to think that a team 18 games into the season, that's who that team will be in a month, in 2 months, in 3 months, it's absurd. And it is, it's almost disrespectful to the process of going through it and the process of winning a championship because it doesn't just happen. Game 1 or 8 or 15 for anyone. You know, like you're still trying to figure it out. You're figuring matchups out, you're figuring lineups out, you know, you're figuring all of these, what play, what sets work, what sets don't work. Are we running too many sets? Do we need to simplify the playbook? Do we need to add more to the playbook? You still have all of those things to figure out. And so to count that team out under 20 games into the season, I think is absurd. And as I said before, I think it's disrespectful to the process of winning a championship because it doesn't happen overnight for anyone. I'm not, you know, I say that as someone, I think we're 15-2 or whatever our record is right now. Here we sit, we sit here with the best record in the league through the first 3 weeks or whatever it is. And you can bet your bottom dollar, we're like, we're gonna hit some bumps. Like we're, you know, that's just the nature of the game we play. You play 82 games in a year, you know, you lose 2 or 3 in a row, it feels like the world's collapsing on you, you know? And so we're gonna hit some bumps. They are, you know, they're already hitting some bumps and that's just, everyone's season is different. You may hit your bumps in the beginning, you may hit 'em in the middle, you may hit 'em in the end. You also have some of these teams that may be bumpy all the way through the season. But the reality is, is everyone hits that bump in the road. Everyone has to figure it out. And I think, I don't think it's past the point of where they're gonna figure it out. We're 20, we're not even 20 games in. So I don't sit back and look at them and say, yep, that team can't figure it out or they won't win. Now that's a very dangerous team with a lot of talent that you have to continue to get better and make sure you're putting yourself in the best position to beat that team whenever it's time because they'll be there.

Speaking of another team that has a lot of talent and you can't count out, that was sort of in the news a little bit online last night. Did you, Draymond Green, see the picture of Kevin Durant's ashy head?

Oh my God. Jesus Christ, K. You know what? I actually saw the picture, Bam Adebayo, sent me the picture and said, "There's no way K is this ashy." He said, "There's no way K is this ashy." And I said, "What the fuck?" I sent back a bunch of crying laughing faces. And then I clicked on the link that Bam sent me and it was fucking hilarious. I think it was the 10 clips of like, the 10 clips of, well, tweets I should say. It started with Isaiah Thomas and then it went on through. I, it was a great day in NBA news not related to basketball between KD's ankle or leg or whatever it is. That was ridiculous. And as someone who, like, I mean, growing up, man, I was the kid in high school who everyone came to me for lotion. I kept lotion in my backpack. But I was always ashy. I fucking hated putting it on. But if you ever needed lotion, you come to me. So as someone who spent the first 16 years of my life not giving a damn whether I was ashy or not, that was another level of— that wasn't even ash. That was fucking scales. And like, I mean, it looked like you could go fucking skin him like an alligator and take it to the store and sell it. Like, that's how bad. Yeah. That's how bad it was. I have not talked to Kevin yet. I am looking forward to calling him today and getting his opinion. I know he gonna say, "Fuck y'all." Yeah, did you see his tweet? Like, "Why y'all worried about my ankles?" I already know what his response is gonna be. But I'll tell you what, to my brother Rich Kleiman, there's a lot, a lot, of lotion brands out here. I'm not sure if Kevin Durant wants to promote some lotion or endorse some lotion, but to my brother Rich Kleiman, who is an incredible businessman, who's helped alongside Kevin build 35 ventures, who's doing big shit in the media and sports tech, sports media technology industry, My brother Rich, I need you to call all these lotion brands, or being that we are talking about KD, pick the lotion brand that y'all want to endorse and partner with and go partner with them because that'll be an incredible story if Kevin just comes out the next game incredibly lotioned, um, you know, with skin looking impeccable. Yeah. I love to see it. So I hope that K can capitalize on this because that was fucking bad. And in other news, Kuzma's sweatshirt. I love Kuz, man. That's, you know, that's the little bro from Flint, Michigan, which is right up the highway from Saginaw, Michigan. I think Kuz has definitely lost his Flint ways because I don't know anybody in Flint other than Kuz wearing that goddamn sweater. But hey man, if you can pull it off, which I guess he pulled it off, I don't know. Some people will say, "Yeah, he did pull it off." Some people will say, "No, he didn't." If you could pull it off and it work for you, go for it. But that sweater, Nah, that wasn't it. I mean, some of these outfits these guys be wearing and they're like runway shoots through the tunnel, be fucking pathetic. I actually like the way Kuz dress. I think Kuz puts shit together. And I mean, I guess if your goal is to break the internet, he did that.. But yeah, the sweater's a fucking no for me. My mom texted me, she said, if he just wrapped the sleeves around his body, he got himself a straitjacket. It's like, I mean, I couldn't fucking believe Kuz wore that sweater. By the way, I can't even believe someone made that sweater. But the fact that he had the confidence to put it on, Kudos to Kuz, man. But sweater fucking sucked in my opinion.

I am extremely excited to welcome this next guest to the Draymond Green Show. Guy who I've been a fan of since high school, man, watching this man run off a million screens at Duke. I'm gonna read this, I'm gonna read this bio because it's so long and I wouldn't be doing him any justice. If I didn't read this. And a McDonald's All-American at Cave Spring High School in Roanoke, Virginia. Scored 43 points as a senior in the Virginia High School League 3A state championship victory, which was a record until Matt McClung beat it by scoring 47 in the 2A championship. He set ACC records for most points scored, most ACC tournament points scored during his time at Duke. Total points scored, which was later beat by Tyler Hansbrough. Duke's all-time leading scorer, which is saying a whole bunch considering the history of that program, as we all know, top of the top when talking men's college basketball. Consensus National Player of the Year in 2006, which I take a little offense to this consensus because I was National Player of the Year, but definitely wasn't consensus.

Yeah.

Two-time Rupp Award winner, two-time ACC Player of the Year, and he had his number retired at Duke at Cameron Indoor February 4th, 2017. Went on to be drafted 11th overall by the Orlando Magic in the 2006 NBA draft. Seven seasons with the Magic, four seasons with the Clippers, two with the 76ers, two with the Pelicans, and he finished it off with the Dallas Mavericks. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] A career 41.5% 3-point shooter, 17th all-time, and he made the playoffs in his first 13 seasons. I am honored to have the great, the latest media personality that we're all enjoying watching. JJ, what's up, man? Welcome to the show.

Draymond, what a pleasure to be on this show, especially early on. I got the early ask. This is a big deal. I should add a couple things to my bio. And I appreciate you espousing all of my records and whatnot. I was also McDonald's Game MVP. I like to point that out. I like to point that out. And you forgot two very somewhat forgettable months that I spent in Milwaukee in between the Magic and the Clippers. In between the Magic and the Clippers. I actually enjoyed Milwaukee, the city, just from a basketball perspective. Wasn't my best. It wasn't my best.

I definitely respect that. Hey, JJ, as someone who I view as a pioneer in this space, we're talking current athletes doing a podcast. I think you've been doing one now for what, the last 4 or 5 years throughout the rest— well, the last 4 or 5 years of your career. And that's kind of where I'm at. You know, I think I'll go another 5, 6 years and then kind of start transitioning out. But what advice do you have for myself and other players that's trying to break into this space and stay consistent while continuing to play at a high level?

It's a great question. 'Cause I know that you previously tried to do a podcast and you did a few episodes. And that's the first piece of advice. If you're gonna do this and do it right, You have to be consistent. Even prior to us launching Old Man and the Three last summer in August, in the middle of the bubble, I had done, uh, 3 seasons with The Ringer.

Mm-hmm.

And I only did about 25 or 30 episodes a year. And unless it was a big, big name, the, the viewership, the listenership, the ad revenue, all that stuff, it wasn't consistent. The only time it was consistent previously was when I launched the first one, which was with Yahoo. I did 40, I think 41 episodes, and it was 41 straight weeks. And I saw the audience grow. I saw the community grow. Uh, I made a little money doing that. Um, but it's hard as an NBA player. And we have Duncan Robinson, uh, under our umbrella, our podcast umbrella. And look, he's, he was in the middle of a slump and was like, I need to take 2 weeks off. By all means, basketball is first. And I said that for, I said that the very first episode back in February of 2016, I said, look, if this ever interferes with basketball, I'm out.

I'm out.

Yes, sir. Basketball is my number one priority. And I expect that it'll be the same for you. But the consistency is key.

I appreciate that because for me, like you said, doing it the first time that I tried it, you're right. Like I did it one week and then I'm like, ah, my schedule don't really work this week. I can't really fit it in. Maybe we can go next week. And before you know it, it's been one episode in a month. And then, you know, after that month, we try to come back around and do it again. And the consistency wasn't there. But I also— I mean, that had to be, phew, maybe 4 or 5 years ago now. I also wasn't in a place in my career where I truly understood the ins and outs of the NBA, the ins and outs of the schedule. Mm-hmm. How to really manage my time. I didn't understand any of that. And so it ended up being an absolute struggle. And I told myself, I said, I will not get back in the podcast game until I am ready to manage the schedule, until I am ready to fully commit to it. Because in my mind, I'm like, I fucked this up once. Like, you don't get many chances to fuck something up. Yeah. And still have an opportunity to do it later. So I fucked this up once, I have to get it right this time.

So to that point, I really experienced this in the last 15, 16 months with Old Man and the Three. 'Cause at one point when we first launched, we were starting from zero. We had to, we had to take, we couldn't take our RSS feed. I didn't own the IP on the previous iteration at JJ Redick Podcast. So we were starting with, a subscriber base of zero, an audience of zero. So we were pumping out a ton of content originally. We were doing like 2 weeks an episode for the first 3 or 4 months. Once the season started, we went back to once a week. And I feel like you get into a rhythm. And generally speaking, we record on Monday or Tuesday, we pump it out Wednesday or Thursday, and you do all the prep work, which takes time.

Mm-hmm.

You know, I do all the prep work, I do all the creative, the writing, all that stuff. That takes time and that could take anywhere from an hour to 3 hours depending on the guest. And then you record the episode, which is an hour. You have your team edit it, they do the breakout videos, all that stuff. And then you don't have to worry about it for 4 or 5 days.

And you—

It decreases in priority. And then Sunday night, Sunday night, you're like, all right, I gotta get back on this shit. I gotta figure, all right, we got this person this week. Let me start prepping. I carry my phone around me with me, obviously. If I have an idea for the guest, I pump it in my notes and then I do all my prep work, usually day of, to be honest with you. I like having everything fresh in my mind. The other piece of advice, and I don't really need to give you this piece of advice, but I thought of this as you were talking. You know, one of the reasons I started this was because I wanted to control the narrative. Mm-hmm. And you've seen, you've seen your guy, uh, KD, uh, start his own podcast and he's been big on controlling the narrative around him. I wanted to control my own narrative, but I also wanted to, to learn how to own my own voice. And that is a skill. That is a skill. And it's not a skill that happens immediately. I think you're at the place in your career and in your life where you've done that. Anytime I've seen you in a press conference or on an appearance with Turner, like, I know who Draymond is. You're consistent with who you are. And I think the audience always responds to someone owning their voice.

Mm-hmm.

I appreciate that. That's something that I've been big on is just wanting to stay myself and not do anything that kind of drags me away from that. So I definitely appreciate that. But speaking in the lights of, well, just speaking on basketball, obviously you and I both know, it's funny, we were in practice today and one of the coaches came up to me. He's like, "Hey, man." It just dawned on me. He's like, "Do you realize everyone in the NBA can hit a three?" today. Like, literally every guy in the league, because shooting is at such a premium, that if you watch any guy's workouts, they're shooting— they're shooting 3-pointers. I mean, you have Dwight Howard. I watched one of Dwight Howard's workouts. It literally consisted of mostly 3-point shots. And I'm not sure if I agree with that. I mean, obviously Dwight's a Hall of Famer, so no disrespect to Dwight. But— 'cause that's the league that we're in, it's so 3-point heavy. But 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 4, 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. Yes. 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. 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, it's the, it's the volume of looks. If, if Steph Curry And Tom Habenstroh always talks about this. I think Steph's up to like 15, almost 15 a game this year. Tom's always been like, Steph needs to shoot 20 a game. 'Cause if you do the math on that, those 20 shots equal about 27 points on average. On average.

Yeah. No, I think it's funny because I was talking to Bob Myers a couple weeks ago and he was telling me like, you know, Steph's 3-point shots are getting up, But all of my analytical guys tell me, every time I ask him like how many threes or stuff, man, he said all my analytical guys, they tell me, well, he's getting up there, but we need him at 20 a game. I'm like, number one, 23-point shots a game, that is brutal on the body, man.

Yes, yes. He's already putting in enough work to get his shot off, to get his clips off.

Absolutely, and that's a lot of work on the body, I think it is very interesting of where we see the league going. I remember going back to my, man, first 2, 3 years, 4 years in the league, everybody's like, "They're a jump shooting team. You can never win that way." Right. Like, "You can never win shooting jump shots." And within one year, we went from like taking the most threes to like 16th in the league because everybody's like, "Oh man, we need to take more threes." So it's been very interesting. To see that growth in the game. But something you just said really hit home with me, and comparing the older generation to the newer generation and how the game actually worked. Because—

Yeah.

Like, you see all the numbers of Steph passing Reggie Miller and going to pass Ray Allen soon. He's done it in like half the amount of games. And it's gonna be interesting because as you just said, and I agree, Steph.

The way he goes about things. I don't wanna disrespect any other shooter as someone who's not a shooter myself. But I think Steph is like in a farly different category than anyone else just because of the difficulty of shots. He's shooting them off the dribble. He's shooting them off the catch. He's shooting them off the spot. He's shooting them now. He's shooting them from 30 feet out each and every time he shoots the ball. But when you look at a guy like Draymond Green, a guy like Donovan Mitchell, these guys who's coming to the league, taking threes at this rate from the very beginning of their career, they're gonna pass Steph's number in 500 games. And yet I don't think that's necessarily going to tell the story of Steph being the greatest shooter alive and greatest shooter ever. But yet he changed the game. Like, what's your take on that?

Well, so I was gonna bring this up when you were talking earlier just about, your first few years and them saying jump shooting teams can't win. When I look at the evolution of the 3-point shot, the 2 teams I think of that sort of started this were the Phoenix Suns with Steve Nash and Quentin Richardson, Joe Johnson, Shawn Marion, and then my Orlando Magic teams. Which by accident, we ended up starting Rashard and Turk together. Yeah. 'Cause Tony Battier hurt his shoulder in training camp. So we were 4 out. Won in with Dwight. If you look at the numbers of those teams, those teams would be at the bottom of the league right now in 3-point attempts.

Yeah.

Bottom of the league. To your point about Trae and Donovan and, and just really the, the next generation of players, I'm 15th right now in 3-pointers made all time, right? Which is crazy. In 10 years, I'll be outside the top 50 probably. I'm being realistic on that. I mean, it's, The volume is so different now. The other thing I would say about Steph, to your point about him, the shots he takes, my bag generally was coming to my right shoulder, left-right plant. You know this. Yeah. Everything was run on the left side. Me coming left-right plant, shooting over that shoulder away from the defense so they couldn't bother my shot.

All right.

Then Alpha, DHOs, and sort of step-up pick and rolls, a 1 or 2 dribble pull-up 3. That was my bag, right? Kyle Korver.

Yes, sir.

A lot of the same, right? Klay, a lot of the same. Reggie, a lot of the same. Ray Allen, to a degree, had some off-the-dribble bounce, but at the end of his career when he was shooting a lot of 3s, a lot of the same. Steph is everywhere.

Is everywhere.

The only guy that shoots it even remotely like Steph, and I'm not saying one's better than the other, he's that far behind Steph is Dame. Dame is the only guy to me that in some way emulates what Steph does from the 3-point line.

I agree 100%. It's interesting that you say you in 5 to 7 years, you'll be at 50. And that's interesting because it's actually gonna be some guys higher than you that we wouldn't consider a shooter. Like, yeah, he can hit the 3, but we wouldn't really consider him a shooter. And that's just kind of where the game is going. But you speak of your Orlando Magic team with you, Turk, and Charles Lewis, Ryan Anderson ended up coming along on that team and stretching the floor. Draymond Green, guys that could really fill it up from outside. But like you said, we'll be at the bottom today. But looking back on your career, and obviously we had some battles in your Clipper days, We're kind of right there in that space of, man, who's next up in the West, right? Like, the Clippers are next up in the West. Then you had us coming about like, ah, we wanna have something to say about that. And early in those years, we really didn't. You guys, I think y'all beat us in game 7 one year.

All right.

And y'all really had it going. But what was your favorite team to play with and that you felt like had the best chance to win a championship? Obviously y'all went to the finals, with Orlando, but I feel like some of those Clipper teams, we all thought would have a legit chance at winning a championship.

I would say this, when I look back at my career, the years I'm most fond of were my Clipper days for a number of reasons. Number one, because we were good. Number two, because it really was the type of basketball that I like, which is, you had 5 guys pretty much at all times on the floor that complemented each other. It's what makes your team so great. It's what makes the Warriors team so great. The players, the pieces, they complement each other. They fit together. And our guys, especially those first 2 years when we had Matt, we really fit together. There was an intelligence required to play against us.

Yes.

We were very smart. We had wink, wink, nod, nods on every ATO, on every after free throw play. We had a counter to every play. Those were— that's fun basketball to me, is just, you know, using your brain a little bit too. Honestly though, the team I thought was gonna win was actually the year after we made the Finals in Orlando.

Yes.

The 2010 team. So we finished the regular season 33-8. We swept the first 2 rounds of the playoffs. So we're 41-8 going to the Conference Finals. Boston had had a little bit of a rough stretch during the regular season with some injuries. So we had home court in the Conference Finals. Finals, and they win the first 2 games, and we're playing catch-up the rest of the way. We lose in Game 6. But that team, to me, that was a lost opportunity. You look back, you know, you won't have this because you've won, but I'm sure you'll look back and say, oh, we maybe let that one get away. Maybe it was '16 for you or something like that.

Absolutely.

You know, that team. But I look back, and especially those first 2 years before you guys had evolved into the 2016 team. And then the 2017 team with Kevin that first year, those first 2 years with the Clippers, those were golden opportunities. We were as good as anybody in basketball.

100%. I mean, we're coming up against you guys. And like I said, everybody's kind of tagging y'all as the next young guys up to go win championships with yourself and CP, DeAndre, Blake. I'm not sure which year Matt Barnes was on there, but I think that was early on.

Yeah, those are, yeah. The first 2 years Matt was on those teams, yep.

Absolutely. I mean, I think y'all definitely had just as good a chance as anyone. And I think for me, 2016, you're right. I'll always beat myself up about that one. And not because we lost or not because like I got suspended or the way it went down. Like I don't have any regrets about any of that stuff. But the regret I do have is how we had a golden opportunity to, not only be 73-9, but win the NBA Finals, put together the absolute best year in NBA history. And we let that one fall by the wayside. So that one fucking beats me down.

So Doc had this comment, and I wanna touch a little bit on that 2016 Finals because Doc had this comment after you guys won in '15 that winning a championship requires a little bit of luck. And of course you got, look, you guys are prideful. I think Klay was probably the most outspoken about that. Which he always is. You know, I said something the other day on ESPN about you guys not having the hardest schedule. Klay reacted to that. I'm like, Klay, I'm your biggest fan, dude.

Chill the fuck out.

But anyways, when you look back at that '16 series, what Doc was saying was there's certain things that have to go in your favor. You know, I look at that, the Sixers series when we lost to the Raptors.

Yeah.

And Kawhi's shot.

Yes.

That's an unlucky bounce of all unlucky bounces.

Absolutely.

If you look at that '16 series, you guys are up 3-1, LeBron steps over you, you react. You could call that unlucky. You get suspended.

Yes.

Bo gets banged up. You could call that unlucky. LeBron and Kyrie for 3 straight games play out of their fucking minds. LeBron makes one of the greatest blocks, defensive plays in NBA history.

Yep.

So those are all things that went in their favor against you guys. And you lose by basically a buzzer beater, right?

Yeah, absolutely.

Not buzzer beater, but he made it with 40 seconds or whatever it was on the clock. Kyrie step back. So there's so much, there's so many things that are required to go in your favor. And when you start adding up a bunch of things in a 7-game series, shit happens and you may lose. And that to me was what kept happening with our Clippers teams. You know, '14, we're playing game 5 at OKC. I think we're up 9 or 11 with 4 minutes to go. We make some, like Chris made 3 plays I've never seen him make before.

You know? Was that the one where he tried to take the foul and he threw the ball and they didn't call the foul?

Yes. And then, yes. So he makes that play. Then he fouls Westbrook on a 3. I don't know why we're fouling Westbrook on a 3. And then we have a chance, we're down 1, we have a chance to win, and he turns the ball over.

I've never, have you ever seen CP turn the ball over? He doesn't make those mistakes.

No, he doesn't make those mistakes. You know, then '15, we're up 3-1, we're at home, we're up 19 in the second half. Josh Smith hits 3 threes in the fourth quarter. Corey Brewer hits 2 threes in the fourth quarter. We lose that game, okay? '16, I've talked about this before. I don't know that we would've beat you guys, but Steph hurts his knee.

Yeah.

He's a little banged up. There's this window right before we play, I think it's game 4, right before we play game 4, where we're like, oh, we got a shot. Let's win this game. Let's take care of business. Go home, play the Warriors. Within 10 minutes in the second half, Blake tears his quad tendon and CP breaks his wrist. The following year in the first round, Blake, we're up 2-1 against Utah, Blake tears his plate in his foot. Like, those are the type of shit you can't overcome if you want to win a championship. So there is an element of whatever you want to call it, but there is an element of luck. And certainly in our league, you have to have a Steph Curry, you have to have a LeBron James, a Kevin Durant, a Kawhi Leonard to win, but you also have to have some things go in your favor in a playoff series.

Yeah.

No, 100%. You know, Coach Izzo used to always say that to us, actually. It's like, uh, when March come around, uh, you got to be clicking on all cylinders, and you always need a little bit of luck. Like you said, that's health, uh, that's a bounce by Kawhi Leonard. That, that is definitely all of those things. So I, I actually agree. I think when— and looking back on it now, we can all look back on it and say, um, we can all look back on it and say Doc was 100% right. I think at that time for us where it's coming like, oh, it's Doc, it's coming from the Clippers. We hate each, like we all hate each other, right? Like it's this NorCal versus SoCal thing that's coming together. It's the Steph, Chris Paul thing at the time, you know, where it's like, who's Steph coming up to surpass Chris Paul? Chris Paul kind of raised Steph with the whole North Carolina ties. And so I think once you look at all of that back then, it's like, oh, here's Doc slighting us, right? Like, here's Doc taking a shot at us. But looking back on it, no, 100% accurate. You definitely need a little bit of luck and some things to go your way. But JJ, you have, you've had the opportunity to play with two incredible, well, probably more, but two for sure incredible big man, and Dwight Howard, who is 100% a Hall of Famer, who was actually left off that NBA 75 list, which I thought was fucking ridiculous. Because if you're leaving him off that list, you're leaving him off the list because of his last 5 years, right? But you can't be leaving him off that list due to what he did in those first 11 years. And in the last 5 years, Whoop-de-doo, he hasn't been the player that he was, but he won a fucking championship. So he really stamped that resume regardless of how you wanna talk about it or go say, oh, well he wasn't the star of that team or whatever. He fucking won a championship. He contributed to that championship after essentially reviving his whole career, having to revive, you know, just, I mean, really revive it.

He was even watching— Buying into a role. He had to buy into a role that wasn't his role for his first 11 years.

And that took—

Absolutely. That took a few seasons to get there, but he bought into that role. It takes a lot of guys. I said this on my podcast, dude, that was the most egregious error. And there's a bunch of guys you can make an argument for. I could go down the list and I know Klay's been joking around wearing 77 in practice or whatever, but like, that's not an affront to Klay or you or Tracy McGrady or Vince or anybody else, Dwight was the guy that should have been on that list. And I always say this narrative matters so much. And there's, there's two things that happened in Dwight's career. You just mentioned one, which is starting sort of in Houston. There was a narrative around him as a teammate, as a leader. And then the second thing is he was the best player in 2011.

Absolutely.

He was second in MVP that year. Derrick Rose got it. But if by any advanced metric, Dwight was the best player in the league that year. But because the Bulls had this incredible turnaround, Derrick sort of came outta nowhere that year. And, and, and I'm not discrediting Derrick's MVP by any means, but had Dwight won the MVP that year, you couldn't have left him off the list.

Nope.

Sure couldn't have. You sure couldn't have.

Couldn't have left him off the list.

No. And, and that is a fact. So, but when you say the, outta the guys you played with, Dwight and Joel, who I also think, Is an incredible young big, not quite Hall of Famer yet because he has to continue to stamp that resume and add onto it. But definitely has Hall of Fame potential, has the game. But with those guys, two totally different bigs though. Like Dwight's catching lobs and at that time in Orlando, like you would dump the ball into the post to Dwight and you know, he jump hooks, but not as heavy as Joel. I mean, the whole entire offense is ran around Joel in Philly. But what were your, like, your experience of playing with those two guys? Two, I think, different experiences, but a little similar.

I think the similarity between the two is that, in different ways, by the way, but the similarity is they could anchor a top 5 defense. When they were on the floor, you know, Dwight in his prime, And certainly Joel now, he can anchor a top 5 defense. You could put 4 smart players around them and you can have a top 5 defense. Offensively, very different. And even though we did throw the ball to Dwight a lot, a lot of his strength was based on his— the way he moved, his quickness, his explosiveness. That's not really Joel's game. Joel can certainly— is certainly nimble. I would describe him as agile and nimble. Yes. But Joel's skill at his size, I mean, you could probably name 2 or 3 guys in NBA history at his size that can do the things he does.

Absolutely.

And so it was a very different experience playing with both, but it was a very rewarding experience because, you know, as you know, playing against me, like I thrived when I had a 5 to play 2-man with. And, you know, I started running maybe my fourth year. Yeah, my fourth year I started running that elbow action on the left side with Dwight. You know, where— Absolutely. I'm gonna get a DHO. If the big steps up, I'm throwing the pocket pass. If the big lays back, I gotta pull up J, go into my right hand. And I had that with Joel. We evolved it with Joel. I'm not saying I was the first to do this, but, that inverted screen and roll.

Yes.

So, you know, when everybody started top-locking me, I'm not, you're not, you're not coming off to your right hand. Well, my guy's got his back turned. Dwight's guy can't see me, or Joel's guy can't see me. And I would just gently walk my guy into Joel's defender. And he's so smart. He had like this innate sense, 'cause you know, his back's turned to me. He had this innate sense when he turned, of when I was being top block and he'd come off and get a dunk. I also ran that a little bit with Ben, but obviously that's more of a 1-2 inverted action, which a lot of teams run. But that inverted big pick and roll was sort of the evolution. And truthfully, Dwight probably couldn't have done that. He didn't have—

Yes.

He didn't have the ball skills and the dribbling skills to really pull that off. But those are, I go down the list of the best players I've played with and Dwight and Joel are at or near the top of the list.

No, that's beautiful. And for all our listeners out there, we are headed into Thanksgiving in a couple days. JJ has a house full coming tomorrow, so we have to let JJ go. I can sit here and talk basketball with you all day as an incredible basketball mind that you are, but also as the incredible radio, TV, personality that you have become, I think is beautiful. You are extremely intellectual. You know the game in and out, and your resume obviously speaks for itself. So I'll let you out of here on this one. Tough, tough. Do guys fear LeBron more on the court, or are they fearing going up against you on TV? 'Cause you, you're obviously fucking trending for killing people, man. I mean, what's more to fear, JJ?

Well, I think this takes the conversation full circle, actually. And that's owning your voice, owning your truth.

Absolutely.

My truth is based upon two things, my experience. So obviously my truth is very personal, but it's also based on observation, and there are objective facts. That you cannot deny. There are objective facts that you cannot deny. So I try to sort of fit in those facts where I can. I'm not trying to go after anybody, but if I disagree with something, I'll let it be known. I'll let it be known. But Dray, before I get off, a lot of people, by the way, I know you got a lot of basketball left in you, but a lot of people have said to me, you and Draymond need to do the version of the Manning brothers Monday Night Football. When Draymond's retired. So just keep that in mind in 5 years or 6 years, whenever you're done.

All right? I'll definitely keep that in mind, man. I know today you going at Stephen A, who I love, man. My brother.

Yeah, I said this on my— So I recorded the intro to our podcast for this week and we touched on a little, Tommy brought it up. And I said this, man, like Stephen A, I think is one of, if not the most talented person on television. Sports, politics, entertainment. He has a real talent. It has been so entertaining for me and truthfully, like, enjoyable to sit across the table from him. I've known Stephen for a long time. We all have. You have a conversation with him off air. Soon as we hear that 10-second mark, he goes into character and it's a tornado. And it is so beautiful to watch. And it's just, it's very rewarding to be on screen with him and to be able to chat hoops with him.

No, that's beautiful. I think I've had a similar experience in working with Chuck.

Like Chuck—

Yes, yes.

Chuck fucking sits there and texts. He sits there and talks shit. Like, I mean, it's, You know, the game's going on, you're kind of sitting in the back. I'm sitting there watching, taking notes, jotting stuff down in my phone, sending stuff to the producer, getting ready for my segment. Chuck's over here fucking watching a dating show. And I'm like, this fucking guy's sitting here watching a dating show. And meanwhile, he's gonna go out here, we're gonna talk basketball, and he knows everything that's going on. It's like this uncanny ability that they have and extremely— Yeah. Honored to work alongside a guy like that. As you working alongside Stephen A. But as far as that, and I'll let you outta here. As far as that Manning, brother Eli and Peyton, obviously I did that a few days or last week.

Yeah.

And I mean, it was incredible. Number one, I'm fucking sitting on TV talking to Peyton Manning, Peyton and Eli Manning. Like, are you fucking kidding me? Like that in itself was incredible for me. But I watched the game last night. I watched, fuck, who was playing? Whoever was playing last night. I watched that game. I watched the Peyton and Eli cast. I didn't even watch the normal broadcast. That's so entertaining. And I think you're on to something, JJ. I would love to sit there, talk sports with you, talk that actual game with you, but also just talking sports. I think it's beautiful. I think we have two totally different perspectives. Whereas yours coming from more of, I'm more of a playmaker, do all the dirty work. You're coming off lighting everybody up. So I think our perspectives would match and I would be honored to sit in a room with a GOAT like yourself and talk basketball, man.

We'll make it happen. We'll make it happen.

Absolutely. But JJ, I can't thank you enough for coming on this week's episode of the Draymond Green Show. I am looking forward to coming on Old Man and the Three. We'll talk some more shit. We'll talk a bunch of basketball. I'm looking forward to it. Thanks a lot for coming on, JJ.

Yeah, this was fun. Thanks, Draymond.

Appreciate it, man.

No problem. Thank you. As we know, I've had my fair share throughout the course of my career over these last 9 years, now 10 in the NBA. This segment will be called Tech Support. I am extremely excited about this segment because— as someone as particular as I am, every year I would go through and like, I would write my texts down and I'd be like, yep, I deserve this one. I definitely deserve this one. And I got my money's worth. This one, on the other hand, I didn't quite deserve this one. And this one should probably be rescinded. I've actually had these conversations with, with the league office before of my entire list of texts, like, Yep, this one, this is exactly what happened. I 100%. And I'm— the thing about it, I'm always going to be 100% honest. I take pride in my techs, and I actually enjoy getting them when I'm trying to get them. And then I also am honest when that— I didn't quite deserve that tech. But this is Tech Support, and in honor of Russ not knowing that he got a tech, first off, Russ, you fucking squared up with the guy or whoever he was squaring up with. How in the hell did Russ not know he got a tech? Like that's, I mean, I guess it was a lot going on, but in honor of Russ not knowing he got a tech, we will kick off the tech support segment of the Draymond Green Show. And I think it'll get a little interesting and a little spicy depending on some of these texts as we embark on this new journey of tech support.

Okay, Draymond Green, for this one, this took place January 20th, 21st, 2021. So last season, it comes after, uh, you were bringing the ball up, trying to get, get the ball to James Wiseman in the post. Bit of a turnover. Whose fault is it? Yours or his? And you come back down the court when you guys are backing up on defense, you're yelling at him. It seems like you're yelling at, at Wiseman, and then all of a sudden you're teed up. Walk us through this play.

Here we are, as you can see, it's 60 to 55, second quarter with a minute and 10 seconds to go. And here I am trying to make a post feed to James Wiseman that if you hold your man off, if he's sitting on the top side, if you hold him off, he goes for that steal, you guys dunk and you're more than capable of holding him off. And so I'm telling him as I'm running back down the court, "Draymond Green, hold your position." And he says something back. I can't really recall what he's saying back. But then as he says something back, I then yell, I yell something back to him. And as you can see right here, I'm coming back. We're retreating back on defense. And the official at the top of the screen blows his whistle and give me a tech. And man, I mean, I was baffled. Number one, you're trailing the play. There's no way you can hear. I'm the first person down the court. I turned the ball over. There's no way you can really make out what I'm truly saying, which is why you got it completely wrong because it's too far away from you. It's, it definitely, it clearly wasn't enough to get a tech as we know. But I was pretty frustrated by this one because— Yeah. You know, we're playing a New York Knicks team who's having a pretty good year. And you know, it's an important game for us. And yet I get thrown outta the game right before halftime, inadvertently. It's pretty frustrating because for me personally, I am going to get my fair share of techs. I am going to at times give you reasons to give me a tech or two. And so in this situation, I just like to earn the tech. I like to earn the ejection. And like I said, you know, to the league's credit and in their defense, they reached out immediately, said it was a mistake. They were rescinding the fine, they were rescinding the tech. And so no harm there. No harm, no foul there. But to get kicked outta the game, missed the rest of that game, which can alter an entire season. I thought there should have been something there where they could say, yep, that was 100% an inadvertent whistle, a mistake, and I could stay in the game. But, and yet, you know, that rule hasn't been changed. So whatever.

Do you remember the outcome of that game?

I do not remember the outcome of the game.

I was so frustrated.

At the time of the technical foul, you guys were down by 5, lost the game. 119-104.

Which is crazy. By the way, I can make up 15 points and a half. Not that I'm gonna score the 15 points, but I can definitely make up those 15 points. So that was pretty frustrating. Meanwhile, maybe if we don't lose that game, we are not in the play-in game, then we make the playoffs or whatever. You never know.

So— Insane. Just saying.

Yeah. You know, it's a little frustrating. As we continue on through the tech support journey, wrapping up the tech support, I will be giving you a rating on a scale of 1 to 10 of the bullshit meter on whether I actually deserved the tech or not. And in honor of kicking this segment off, in honor of the league admitting that it was a mistake and me getting my money back and getting that, that individual text rescinded. Uh, this has to be a 10 on the, on, on the bullshit odometer. Um, it, it's 100% a 10. By the way, there will be ones that if this is a 10, there will be ones that's probably tilting towards the negative side of the scale because I went extremely over the top to get it. And that's okay. But in honor of tech support, this is 100% a 10 on the bullshit-o-meter of techs. Because we all know I didn't deserve this one. There's been a bunch of chatter about breakout seasons, about guys who've taken it to another level. I actually have the honor of playing with a guy who I think is having a breakout season. Most improved player worthy season. And is a huge part to our success that we're having. My rook, Jordan Poole, who I, as I said, I think is definitely the most improved player in this league with the strides that he's made from his rookie year to now is incredible. And you know, I think it's, I find it funny Jordan, number one, Jordan Poole is one of the hardest working guys that I've played with. The kid lives in the gym, always working on his game. Since the time that he came here to Golden State, he's been a worker and works his ass off. So it's no surprise to me that he's having the success that he's having. Because when you work the way he work, you're gonna have success. I mean, that's just, you know, that's what it boils down to. You gotta put the work in. I am thrilled at the success that he's having. And I must say, you know, I can talk about the hard work. I can try to pinpoint one specific game to where I'm like, that guy, he has it. Well, you've always known he could score the ball. You've always known how he can shoot the ball and he had that. But one thing that Jordan did that showed me, He's gonna be all right in this league. Actually happened in training camp of his rookie year. We're in camp and he's talking shit to everybody. He's talking, and me personally, that's what I do. I talk shit. So I don't mind, like talk as much shit as you want. At some point I'm gonna probably say something that hurts your feelings and stop you from talking shit. But by all means, say whatever the hell you wanna say. Well, other guys in the league, they, Guys don't really take too well to young guys talking shit. And I can recall, you know, my rookie year, I came into the league talking shit to everyone and guys hated me. I mean, KD, Russ, like that Thunder team was, they really hated young guys coming in talking shit. And I used to talk crazy to everybody, just whatever. That's just how I grew up. Jordan came into camp talking shit to everybody. And I remember one day, him and Glenn Robinson III, who's also went to that other school down the way, they got into it. And like all the guys are coming to me, this is what, 2019, 20, 19, 20 season. And all these guys are coming to me like, "Tell him to shut up. This young ass always got something to say." Da da da da da. And they're asking me to tell him to shut up. I'm like, "I'm not gonna tell him to shut up. If you can't handle him talking shit, that's on you." Y'all shut him up. At that moment though, the way he was getting under guys' skin, I appreciated that. And you know, you couple that with the hard work that he puts in and the amount of skill that he has, and it is a recipe for a guy who's gonna be successful in this league. And so more so than any basketball moment for me, knowing that Jordan kind of had it inside of him or what it takes, it was more so that moment of him getting under everyone's skin and all the guys pissed off because he's a young guy, um, he's— because he's a young guy talking shit to them. And, and, and, you know, if he's not playing well, then you just tell him, shut up, figure it out, like, you, you, you're not doing shit, whatever, blah, blah, blah. But he was playing well and letting them hear about it. And so for me, that was the moment where I'm like, oh, like, He, he, I like him. Like he got some shit to him. And I think in order to be great, you have to have some shit to you. And so I am extremely thrilled to see his growth since coming into this league. It's incredible. I look forward to him hosting that Most Improved Player trophy at the end of this season. 'Cause he's having that type of year. And as I said before, you put the work in, you get the results and he puts the work in. Which means he'll continue to get better as this season go along. And he'll hoist that trophy at the end of the year. And that is a wrap on this episode of the Draymond Green Show. Our second episode. We'll continue to go, we'll continue to get better, and we'll continue to talk that shit. From this week of the Draymond Green Show, I'm out. Peace. Peace.