Draymond Green recalls the moment Steve Kerr benched veteran David Lee and kept him in the starting lineup during a Warriors shootaround, even though the team was 12-1 or 14-1. Green was stunned, but Lee's professionalism and support made it a turning point in his career.
Chapters
The moment or the first game you were given the starting job over David Lee? Wow. You wanna know the moment that was the key to the rest of my life as it is today? I remember that moment like it was yesterday. We were on the court and we were at our old practice facility in Oakland. And when you walked in, there were two full courts and there was like a court in the middle that you could like get shots up on the two rims. Do some stuff if you needed to, but it wasn't full size. And we were on the far, far court. Steve said, "Starters out." We were gonna walk through some plays. It was shootaround. And he was like, "Starters out." And I knew D. Lee was coming back that day, that game. And so I walked off the floor and he was like, "No, no, no. The way we've been starting." And I was like, "Oh man." I think we were like 12 and 1 or 14 and 1 or something like that. When he came back and I was starting. And I was like, "Oh man, like am I really about to be starting still?" I couldn't believe it. And so I walked back on the court and the rest was history. By the way, the way D. Lee handled it and embraced me, I'll forever be indebted to him. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]