Tracy McGrady tells Draymond Green that a championship wouldn't have changed his life or Hall of Fame ranking. They argue that championships require health, chemistry, and front-office luck, and that peer respect matters more than rings. Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, and Karl Malone never won titles but remain great.
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A couple weeks ago, a few weeks ago, I spoke about Chris Paul and I said something about Chris Paul because you always hear people say, "Man, that guy didn't win a championship," as if that unvalidates greatness.
I love, I'm glad we about to have this conversation.
Yeah. You know? And I said something about Chris Paul a few weeks ago, which was Chris Paul is a winner. I don't care how you slice it. I don't care what you say. And the first thing that people will say is Chris Paul isn't a winner. He hasn't won a championship. As someone who has, I understand, number one, all of the things that has to go right in order to win a championship.
There's a lot of moving parts.
You talking health, you're talking everybody clicking on, like, and it's not just like players clicking, it's the front office with the coaching staff, everybody, right? And I was saying like, Chris Paul is a winner and people try to take that away because he haven't won a championship. A lot like yourself. And I was watching a podcast yesterday, Keri Champion, Jalen Rose went on Keri Champion's show, podcast, Naked. And she asked him a question along the lines of winning a championship and do he wish he had of, would that have validated him or something? And he had a great answer, but I want to hear your take on it because you won your whole career. You won damn near everywhere you played, but you didn't win a championship and people tried to lessen who you were as a basketball player. And I wanted to hear it from you.
Draymond, I could go to any country in the world, bro, and I'm recognized.
Absolutely.
Anywhere. I'm well respected out in the streets, in the corporate America. I'm well respected, bro. But here's what I say about that. Like we was talking about, there's a lot of moving parts that has to come into play to winning championships.
Absolutely.
With my game and how I play, you don't think if I had the right pieces around me, I couldn't win a championship?
100%.
You know what I'm saying? Like, I wasn't sorry. I was one, bro, I was one of the top players in the league. I just didn't have the pieces around me. And it's crazy 'cause people, really forget, you know, certain areas and certain guys' careers. If you look at how great KG was the first, you know, 12 seasons of his career, right? What'd he have to do? He went and joined Paul Pierce and Ray Allen to win that championship. But before that, he was phenomenal.
Absolutely.
Phenomenal. But, you know, he didn't win no chip until he teamed up with those guys. What happened when Shaq left and Kobe, was there for 2 years.
Kobe struggled. Kobe struggled a lot. They didn't make the playoffs if I'm not mistaken.
Struggled, right. So people forget about that, bro. You need the pieces around you to win championships.
Take it from me. I understand it all too well.
Right, right, right. So, but you were a key part to that. But here's what I say to those people. I was All-NBA. I led the league in scoring, you know, at that time. I was considered one of the best players in the league, right?
Absolutely.
I was Adidas' top-selling guy. I was one of the number one selling guys in China, right? I had multiple endorsement deals. If I had won a championship in my prime, Draymond, the impact that would've had on me, my life wouldn't have changed, bro. My life wouldn't have changed. You know what I'm saying?
Because—
Absolutely. I had, I was, I had everything but that. But you look back when I got drafted, the impact that that had on me, retiring my mom at 35, 36 years old, Retiring my grandmother from being a custodian for 30-something years, retiring my dad, you know what I'm saying? Like changing the complexion of my family, that type of impact, that impacted me, right?
Absolutely.
I know it's a difference, but I'm just saying that if I had won a championship, my life really wouldn't have changed. It wouldn't have changed. You know what I'm saying?
Yeah, absolutely.
Maybe I would've made the top 75, but fuck all that shit, man. I'm a Hall of Famer, bro. I'm a Hall of Famer. So like, let's have a real conversation, people. You know what I'm saying? Y'all looking at championships. There's a lot of great people ain't win no fucking championship. You don't think Charles Barkley or Patrick Ewing ain't have the talent to win a championship?
Yeah.
Like Karl Malone ain't win a championship. What are y'all talking about, man? Y'all so caught up in fucking— I tried to win one. I worked my ass off to try to win a championship. It didn't happen for me.
You know what I'm saying?
But let's talk about impact. Impact, that personally wouldn't have, it wouldn't have impacted me that much as me getting drafted and what that impact was for my career. If that makes sense.
And to your point, there's a lot of great players that haven't won and there's a lot of bums that has ended up on a championship team. So it's not, it's not apples to apples. It's definitely not apples to apples. Like, come on, bro. That's for certain.
Yeah, man. Like, listen, bro, it's hard as hell to win a championship, man.
Absolutely.
It's hard as fuck to win one. You know, but—
Absolutely.
Yeah. Do I wish I won one? Absolutely. But it's, you know, I don't lose no sleep over that and feel like that's my validation. When I have the late, great Kobe Bryant saying, you know, what he says about me, and when I have the impact that I have on some of these guys that are in the league, the younger generation, and I listen to these guys and they say who their favorite player was, or our impact, the Draymond Browns, you know, the Seth Currys, when they say that I'm their favorite player, like that's the shit that matters to me. The impact on the next generation. That's most impactful to me.
You know what I mean?
For sure.
I always tell people along those same lines, and for you it's the next generation, but it's like, for me personally, nothing gets me going more than the acceptance and approval of your peers. Because ultimately, like, Yeah, we all got tough skin and we all can have the fuck it mentality, right? Like, oh well, damn. But when you have the approval and acceptance of your peers, that goes way further than anything else.
Far beyond of what somebody outside of our game has, what their opinion means. That doesn't carry any weight. But when your peers, validate you, that's all you need.
Absolutely.
And he was that dude, man. He was tough as shit. He was the toughest guy. Like, come on, man. Like, let's not play with this. I know I was nice, bro. I know I was fucking nice. Like, you ain't about to sit here and tell me it's 'cause I ain't win no championship that I ain't validated. Man, fuck outta here, bro. I don't hear that shit.
Absolutely. And the reality is this. There's only a select few of the guy, right? Like you're the guy. Like I've won a championships, I won 3 championships. I'm not the guy. Like Steph Curry's the guy. Klay Thompson's the guy. Kevin Durant's the guy. I do my part. I am very important to what we do.
Right.
But those guys are the guy. They have to carry the scoring load. They have to do like, and the reality is if you look at the NBA, and you really understand the NBA, every decade there's really 1, 2, maybe 3 guys that actually win championships.
Teams.
2000s is the Spurs and the Lakers. 2010s is us and LeBron. And then you like, you know, Dirk got a championship. Kawhi got a championship. But most part is, Every decade, the '90s is, you got Hakeem and them got a couple.
Yep.
But the Bulls dominate. Like every decade there's 2, maybe 3 of the guy that actually wins championships. And there's 30 teams.
Let's be real. There's 30 teams. All 30 teams ain't trying to win a championship.
No.
They're not trying to win a championship. As long as their bottom line is good, they don't give a shit about no championship.
Absolutely.
And that is some of the star guys is the brunt of that. That plays for those type of franchises. They just don't care. Let's keep it a buck.
