Draymond GreenForward, Golden State Warriors

Why Draymond Green Told Thomas Haugh to Skip the NBA Draft and Stay at Florida

19 Jun 2026 · 1 min

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1:09

In this YouTube clip, Draymond Green recounts a conversation he had with Thomas Ho (and his father Will Richard) about whether Thomas should enter the NBA draft or return to the University of Florida. Green explains that the projected earnings from staying in college—calculated as 1099‑type income—exceed the initial draft offer, and emphasizes Thomas’s deep personal and family ties to the Gators, including a desire to win a second national championship and compete for National Player of the Year honors. Green stresses that staying will also allow Thomas to improve his draft stock, provided he works hard and stays healthy. He concludes by expressing confidence in Thomas’s abilities and wishes him a successful season.

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I saw that Thomas Ho talked about me helping him with his draft decision. I can't take that credit. Will Richard, he came to me, he's like, "You know, my young fella gonna call me, he wants some draft advice. What are you thinking?" We start talking about like the number he could possibly get if he went back. And when he told me the number in millions that he'd make if he stayed at Florida, I was like, "Oh, no question, you should go back." Once we got on the phone with Thomas, the number was actually higher than Will actually thought or had told me it was. But number one, Thomas grew up a Florida Gator fan. Family are big-time Gator fans. And so Florida's his dream school. He's won a national championship there. Gonna come back next year and have an opportunity to win a second national championship possibly. Compete for a National Player of the Year. And a much weaker draft. And he's gonna make really good money. That's 1099 income as opposed to W-2 income that NBA players make. And he's gonna solidify himself as one of the greatest Gators ever. I just don't know how it gets much better than that. One thing I told him, "All right, you gotta go do the work. You have to come back next year better than you are right now." So you gotta go do the work. But I think it's the right decision to go back to school. I hope he have a great year, praying for his health, and build that draft stock up even higher. Because I think he's more than capable of doing that.