When Stephen Jackson risked his career for Ron Artest | The Draymond Green Show

How did you feel? And obviously we'll get to what ended up happening, but how did you feel about that team? Y'all two, Jermaine O'Neal, Jamal Tinsley. What was your feeling about that team? And where does it stack up against all the other teams that you did play for?

Well, a couple things happened. Mike Brown ended up going there. Mike Brown was the reason I went to San Antonio and won a championship. That's my guy, my favorite coach of all time. And I know you love Mike as well.

Mm-hmm.

He ended up going to Indiana and I told you I had to go to Atlanta to kinda prove myself again after the championship. So Mike made sure that Indiana was one, giving me my contract and two, giving me a chance, you know, to be the player that they know I could be. Going to that team, Dray, I knew we was gonna win a championship. 'Cause I looked at the roster.

Fact.

And for Donnie Walsh and Larry Bird, two of some of the best minds in basketball, to think that I'm the missing piece and for Reggie Miller, to say that I could be his successor. He's willing to bring him in. This is a guy that I would love to take my place when I retire. All those things had me feeling real confident about myself. So going there, looking at Draymond Green, Ron Artest, Jamal Tinsley, Jonathan Bender, Scott Pollard, Jeff Foster. I'm just looking at the roster like there's no reason that we can't come out the East, first of all.

Facts.

So I just went there confident. But me and Ron playing together on defense, We butted heads every night because we both want to guard the best player. And when we guard the best player, if that person score one time, we arguing again, "Let me get him, let me get him." You know what I'm saying? And it kept us both, I think every night, you know, we came into the game thinking, "Okay, even if I'm not guarding the best man, I'm gonna lock this man up." So after the game, we could be like, "Well, I locked mine up." You know what I'm saying?

Facts, facts.

Most of the nights, that's what it was for that short stint of the season before the brawl happened. But those 15, 19 games, we showed everybody we was the best in the league.

That's beautiful. And I think y'all did as well. But you know, when you're playing against a team with a great wing defender, it completely mess— like destroys the other team offense. Because most guys, most teams, their offense is usually built around a powerful wing. You got two guys that's taking those guys outta the game. Then you funnel them to J-O, young J-O by the way, who's blocking everything, clogging the paint up. You got Jeff Foster clogging the paint up. Y'all had an incredible team. And then obviously, you know, a night in Detroit goes wrong. You know, y'all had a brawl. Walk me through the brawl. I know you started off kind of chill. Then you see Metta going to the stands. Where you go? What happens with you from there?

All right, bro, so—

Mentally.

So you know how Detroit is.

Absolutely.

And we wasn't in the hood. That was the first thing. I don't think a lot of people know, we wasn't where the arena is now.

Yeah.

It would've been a totally situation if the arena where it is now, it had happened there. Somebody would've really got hurt. But for the most part, I walked into a rivalry. Like I said, this was my first year. They had just played in the Eastern Conference Finals. So it was already a rivalry that I had no, nothing about. I knew nothing about. I was cool with a lot of the Pistons players, so. But once I walked into that arena that year, I felt the tension. You can feel the tension, right?

Mm-hmm.

So, and I know it's a big game. They just, you know, they just won and everybody's saying we gonna dethrone them. So it's a big game. So I feel it and we ready to bust their ass. It wasn't no question. We were super confident. We went in there and we was busting their ass. So it's like 45 seconds left. We up 15 points. I'm at the free throw line. I hear Jamal Tilsley tell Ron, "You can get your foul back." And it's playing in my mind, is he talking about something from last year? 'Cause nothing happened in this game. You know what I'm saying?

So I'm like, "Oh." Absolutely.

Bro, you know, and you, at around this time, you don't have to put no battery in Ron back. He gonna do some crazy shit anyway. Right? Around this time, right?

Absolutely.

He says it and I hear him while I'm at the free throw line. So if you look at the footage, we start running back down court after I make the free throw. I push Ron to somebody else and I go guard Ben. We switch so I can guard Ben just so Ron wouldn't foul him so the clock can run out. We can get outta there. We the best team in the league right now.

Absolutely.

We like 15 and 5. I am guarding Ben. Ben gets the ball. I basically just let him go, Draymond Green. You know, the game over. Just let him score, get the ball, let the clock run out. Ron comes from outta nowhere, bro.

I'm sorry.

Bro, outta nowhere, bro. And just fouls Ben way too hard to be up 15 points with 45 seconds left, right?

Absolutely.

A lot of people didn't know, Ben just had a death in his family. He had just lost his brother the day before. So he wasn't even supposed to play, right? So just imagine that being on your mind, right? And you getting your ass whipped, right? For the world to see on national TV, a big game. So Ben reacted like anybody should, bro. I wasn't mad at him for that, right? So we break it up. They don't get to fighting or nothing like that. The referees did a horrible job. If me and you foul somebody like that and they throw us out, they expect us to get off the court immediately.

Immediately.

They looking for a reason to fine us for more, they gonna make sure that we get escorted off the court. Ben stayed on the court for about a good 5, 10 minutes after he was thrown out. And Ben had on like 6 wristbands. So he kept throwing, he kept throwing stuff at Ron, right? To the point where Ron was getting outta control, but Reggie had him calm. He kept laying down. So after we get into it with them a couple times, it's kind of calming down. A cup comes out the stands. Now Ron don't see the cup. I see it. And I see directly where it come from 'cause I'm standing at that angle, but Ron had his head up 'cause he was laying down.

Yeah.

So he just seen the direction it came from. So when he went, my intentions was not to go up there and punch nobody, bro. I mean, I've been in bar fights, club fights too many times. So if you look at my whole posture, I was in control. I ran by about 20 people. I didn't touch nobody, you know what I'm saying? So Ron ran up there and grabbed the wrong guy. So by the time I got up there, I was initially finna grab Ron. And see, this is what they don't talk about. This is why I felt like they need to give us our money back or kind of reverse this shit. Because another beer was thrown in Ron's face.

Yep.

And that's the guy I hit. So that's why I reacted, 'cause he threw another beer, you know what I'm saying? And he was right in front of me, so I had to lay him out, Draymond. I couldn't let him get away with that.

Nah, I respect that. I respect that.

Yeah, I had to.

And I feel that because I always say, you know, stuff happens to us as players. And obviously it's all about, right, protecting the logo and all of that stuff. Like protecting the integrity of the game. Like I get that.

Yep.

But I feel like a lot of times stuff happens, stuff, things happen to us as players.— it gives fans almost like a right to continue to do things because they know at the end of the day—

They protect you.

If you get suspended for 30 games, you get $5 million. That person go home and they go to work tomorrow, they collect their paycheck. You know what I'm saying? And you or J-O gets suspended for what, 20 games I think, or whatever his was. 15 games, Ron gets suspended the rest of the season. Guys, you taking money outta guys' family's mouth. And these fans know that.

And they know— They bought it.

Absolutely. And they know they can get away with the things they get away with. And what ends up happening if something, the worst thing that happens to them, you banned, you can't go back to an NBA game. That's not affecting my life one bit. That's some extracurricular thing that I'm doing because I enjoy doing it, whereas it affects our lives. So I've always been a little on edge about that. You know, guys can say whatever they want to say to us, they can do whatever they want to do, and ultimately you get thrown out the game or you can't come back. I don't think that's fair.

Yeah, yeah, and that's a tough situation because at the end of the day, you still a man.

Right.

You know what I mean? So I think today, especially with everything going on and how, people are starting to listen to our plight and don't think that everything we saying is a complaint. They're realizing that we have a lot of room to stand on for the things that we've been complaining about and saying all this time. I think if the brawl would've happened today, the suspensions wouldn't have been like that. You know what I'm saying? Because they would've looked at everything with a fine-tooth comb. Okay, they're at work. He got assaulted by a fan first. This how all this started. You see what I'm saying?

Yeah.

They would've looked at it different. And I guarantee the outcome would've been different.

No, I think it definitely would've been different. And obviously that changes the entire complexity of the NBA.

Yeah.

Because now y'all have a great team. Even if you don't win a championship that year, you're coming back next year. The following year, Ron doesn't end up leaving. It changes things for J-O. It changes things for yourself. Like, I don't think people really realize the effect that that brawl had on the NBA as a whole.

I make an All-Star game. I'm an All-Star, Draymond, if that don't happen.

100%.

I'm an All-Star for sure.

100%. It completely changed the complexion of the NBA. But then, so fast forward the following year, you're back, J-O's back. Ron gets suspended for the first 30 games by the team. He comes back off the suspension from the team, first 30 games, and he requests a trade. He didn't say anything to y'all about requesting Detroit?

No. And then, but we felt something. We felt something because, well, see me, I got a relationship with him. So during that time I felt something because he had shot, it was something called Smack DVD. And Smack DVD was putting all the local rappers on, I think at the time. If you was rapping, you had to be on Smack DVD. So before the season, while we working out, he came to my house and shot and brought all his rappers and shot a Smack DVD at my house. He wanted to use my house, right? So I knew his mind wasn't where it was supposed to be. You know what I'm saying? We trained, we in tour days. You know what I'm saying? We supposed to be getting ready for the season. I knew it was— I knew his mind wasn't where it was supposed to be, bro. So when he came and said that he wanted time off, I knew that was just the beginning, right? I knew he was finna hit us with something way harder than that. You know what I'm saying? And it started from that to he's saying his mother, somebody on his family died, to him being at the Source Awards, to him all of a sudden wanna be traded. You know what I'm saying? To me, that was a slap in the face. 'Cause I put my career on the line for you, bro. You know what I'm saying?

Absolutely.

I just met you, but you were my teammate, so I'm riding with you like I've been knowing you my whole life. But for you to put me in jail, this position, and then turn your back on us, You know what I'm saying? That kind of like, goddamn, bro, what kind of nigga is you?