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Speaker 1: know we and I sent you. The Colin Coward Podcast
Speaker 1: presented by the Fan Duel Sports Book. Hi everybody, and
Speaker 1: welcome in to the Tuesday Morning Podcast. The great soon
Speaker 1: to be Hall of Famer Draymond Green will be joining us.
Speaker 1: My first ever interview with Draymond Green, his first ever
Speaker 1: interview interviewing me. So let's be honest about this a
Speaker 1: big day for both of us. I want to talk
Speaker 1: about a former teammate of Draymond Green, Kevin Durant. And
Speaker 1: I'm sure it isn't lost on any of you that
Speaker 1: these finals are Kevin Durant's former team that he bailed
Speaker 1: on the Warriors against Kyrie Irving's former team he wanted
Speaker 1: out of the Celtics burn I think Kd's a cautionary
Speaker 1: tale of something that men seek and often to their peril,
Speaker 1: and that is power. Bill Belichick had so much power
Speaker 1: in New England. I was told that in January, starting
Speaker 1: about six years ago, Belichick would call off the scouting
Speaker 1: department and tell them I'll take the draft from here. Well,
Speaker 1: what followed was four or five straight egregiously bad drafts.
Speaker 1: Belichick acknowledged that he was going to give more sets
Speaker 1: of eyes power in the draft room in twenty twenty one,
Speaker 1: and they had their best draft in five or six years.
Speaker 1: This year, again, Belichick took it over and the Patriots
Speaker 1: had what we can call it best an odd draft.
Speaker 1: Robert Kraft acknowledged this not long ago, saying, hey, we
Speaker 1: had a really great twenty twenty one draft. It made
Speaker 1: up for the previous four drafts. This happens in movies.
Speaker 1: Martin Scorsese is a legendary director, but he's become so
Speaker 1: all powerful that when he made The Irishman, it was
Speaker 1: three and a half hours long. I really liked the movie,
Speaker 1: but I didn't love the movie because when a movie's
Speaker 1: too long to watch even on a plane. Probably should
Speaker 1: cut out forty minutes. Garth Brooks had this in the
Speaker 1: nineties when he was not only a sensation, he was
Speaker 1: the most powerful person arguably in music, not just country music.
Speaker 1: And when he came up with the idea to create
Speaker 1: a new character called Chris Gaines, a moody pop star,
Speaker 1: and make a movie about him, he had so much power.
Speaker 1: Nobody raised their hand in the room and went, Garth,
Speaker 1: this is a terrible idea. Of course it was. It flopped,
Speaker 1: the movie was never made. And I think you see
Speaker 1: this time and time again that men often seek power
Speaker 1: or become so successful people don't challenge them. And what
Speaker 1: you get anytime you're making decisions in an echo chamber
Speaker 1: is a higher percentage of poor decisions. And this is
Speaker 1: really Kevin Durant. Kevin Durant, nobody checked him when he said,
Speaker 1: I want to leave the best coach I've ever had,
Speaker 1: the best culture I've ever had, the best teammate Steph
Speaker 1: Curry I've ever had. Nobody checked him. His agent, Rich Kleman,
Speaker 1: didn't check him. His shoe company apparently didn't push back.
Speaker 1: The feeling was, hey, Kevin Durant, He's going to take
Speaker 1: a big leap here, leave all that greatness and go
Speaker 1: to the largely dysfunctional Brooklyn Nets with overwhelmingly dysfunctional Kyrie Irving.
Speaker 1: Nobody raised their hand and went, WHOA, No, you're not
Speaker 1: going to do that. We're not gonna let you do that.
Speaker 1: Whether it's Belichick drafting, Martin Scorsese moviemaking, Garth Brooks creating
Speaker 1: a fictional character, power corrupts. And can you imagine I've
Speaker 1: used this example before. If Patrick Mahomes woke up tomorrow
Speaker 1: morning and said, I'm going to go play for the
Speaker 1: Jets because my best friend's going to go play for him,
Speaker 1: the NFL media would claber him, his agent would his
Speaker 1: shoe company. But there's very a few move the needles
Speaker 1: stars in the NBA, maybe four, and so media wants
Speaker 1: access to not only that player but his agent and
Speaker 1: his shoe company. And you lose it by being critical. See,
Speaker 1: the NFL doesn't have that as good as Josh Allen
Speaker 1: is or Lamar Jackson is, or Justin Herbert's or Patrick
Speaker 1: Mahomes is. I mean, Tom Brady could retire tomorrow. It's
Speaker 1: not going to hurt the ratings at all. Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: could leave tomorrow, it's not going to hurt the ratings.
Speaker 1: But if Durant leaves, and Staff leaves and a handful
Speaker 1: of other people leave, they have so much power in
Speaker 1: the NBA, people cower and are unwilling to push back.
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant had so much power that nobody said to him, Kevin,
Speaker 1: not only is this going to be a huge mistake,
Speaker 1: but the contract you're signing with Brooklyn you won't be
Speaker 1: able to get out of. And so here sits Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant today, another first round exit, two and three years
Speaker 1: humiliated watching Steph Curry and the Warriors heavily favored against
Speaker 1: the Celtics. And I can assure you he's rooting for
Speaker 1: the Celtics. And I can assure you Kyrie Irving is
Speaker 1: rooting for the Warriors. So the two guys that now
Speaker 1: play together are rooting against each other's interests. Surround yourself
Speaker 1: with people not necessarily negative people, honest people, people who
Speaker 1: are authentic, people that can say, hey, I want you
Speaker 1: to think about this, sleep on it. I don't know
Speaker 1: if that's a great decision for your career. Belichick, Garth
Speaker 1: Brooks Martin Scorsese, Kevin Durant. Doesn't matter how brilliant you are,
Speaker 1: you need people willing to be honest with you. A
Speaker 1: three time champ, a four time All Star, four time
Speaker 1: All Defensive First Team Defensive Player of the Year. About
Speaker 1: five years ago, the Draymond Green Shows also the best
Speaker 1: sports podcast in the world, and it happens to be
Speaker 1: on the volume, right I said it. I'm good with that.
Speaker 1: So let's start. When you had a practice today, so
Speaker 1: you're just sitting around waiting for the winner. I like
Speaker 1: you thought Boston's Boston's gonna win this game. I was shocked. Shot.
Speaker 1: I'm not shocked much, dram I've been doing this twenty
Speaker 1: five years. Miami winning in Boston Friday. I can't get
Speaker 1: my brain. What were you watched it? What the hell happened?
Speaker 1: I thought there was no chance. Obviously, Jimmy Butler had
Speaker 1: one of those Jimmy Butler type games that we all
Speaker 1: now know that he's capable of, like, and we didn't
Speaker 1: just figure that out with that game. We've been knew
Speaker 1: Jimmy was capable of that. However, those two games prior
Speaker 1: to that he were playing terrible, and regardless of whether
Speaker 1: it was the injuries or whatnot. I I'm going to
Speaker 1: give Jimmy Butler his credit. I definitely think the injury
Speaker 1: has something to do with those games before. But even
Speaker 1: as say that, I didn't see a forty nine point game.
Speaker 1: And the reality is if he didn't give forty nine,
Speaker 1: they didn't have a chance to win it. He had
Speaker 1: thirty five last night. No chance that winning. But I
Speaker 1: mean I was I was extremely shocked that they were
Speaker 1: able to go in without Tyler hero and go into
Speaker 1: Boston and win Game six. I thought there was no chance.
Speaker 1: So you were presuming And despite what Udonis Haslem a
Speaker 1: guy I love said, I think most of the league,
Speaker 1: most players in the league looked at it like, listen, man,
Speaker 1: you got Jimmy Butler's got knee inflammation, Tyler's out. Bam
Speaker 1: is a great defensive player. He can't be your number
Speaker 1: two score, especially with Williams, who's a really effective defensive
Speaker 1: player on him. So you did a practice today, What
Speaker 1: where do you are you already attacking them? Was today's
Speaker 1: practice more about inserting Peyton otto iggy back into your
Speaker 1: game or was it looking at the Celtics and creating
Speaker 1: a game plan today for us today, it was just
Speaker 1: more about ourselves, like we got up and down, we
Speaker 1: watched we watched some clips on our offense, but we
Speaker 1: didn't necessarily watch much or anything on the Celtics. We'll
Speaker 1: start doing that prep tomorrow. But after the weekend, you know,
Speaker 1: having a couple of days off and then getting you know,
Speaker 1: getting some individual workouts in, we just wanted to get
Speaker 1: in practice and kind of have a blowout session. So
Speaker 1: we played three six minute quarters just to get up
Speaker 1: and down the court and you know, start working on
Speaker 1: getting your rhythm back after a few days off, a
Speaker 1: couple of days off on the weekend, and so our
Speaker 1: focus today was in them at all. Now. I know
Speaker 1: our coaching staff has been watching them all weekend and
Speaker 1: kind of preparing for this, but our focus today was
Speaker 1: simply just us incorporating offensive plays that we know we're
Speaker 1: gonna want to use against their against their switching defense.
Speaker 1: You know, they have a ton of lengths. So we
Speaker 1: just really wanted to incorporate a bunch of stuff on
Speaker 1: our offense and the things that we're going to do,
Speaker 1: and more so focused on ourselves today rather than anything
Speaker 1: on the Boston Celtics. One of the things that I
Speaker 1: kind of find fascinating about the Warriors culture is that
Speaker 1: old players, young players buy in, and veteran players don't
Speaker 1: wear each other out. I mean, you go Shaq, Kobe,
Speaker 1: you can go to the Heatles. It's hard, a lot
Speaker 1: of focus, a lot of media, and you guys just
Speaker 1: don't wear each other out. I mean that's historically, that's rare.
Speaker 1: And then you get young players to buy in and
Speaker 1: you're coached hard. I mean, Kerr, I know Steve, I
Speaker 1: covered Steve. Steve doesn't coach light. So as I watch
Speaker 1: Kevon Looney and I'm like, like, I didn't know he
Speaker 1: was that good of a rebounder, Like I watch his
Speaker 1: development and I'm like, I mean, is that just hard coaching?
Speaker 1: Because Draymond, he is a significantly better player today than
Speaker 1: a year ago. That's what it feels like to me.
Speaker 1: Did you see the growth? Did you predict the growth?
Speaker 1: I've one seen the growth. I can't say I predicted
Speaker 1: this growth because the reality is, if you go back,
Speaker 1: it's funny. I was. I was showing a couple of
Speaker 1: friends of mine just a few days ago. I was
Speaker 1: showing them Cavin Luni's highlight clips from high school because
Speaker 1: they were like, man, Loune's playing so much better and
Speaker 1: he's finishing now. And I was telling and I was
Speaker 1: telling them, I said, and they were just asking questions
Speaker 1: about Lune and I was telling them. I said, you
Speaker 1: know what's crazy, it's the player that he is today
Speaker 1: and that he's become. I have such large, a large
Speaker 1: amount of appreciation for him because he's what he's done
Speaker 1: in these playoffs and really all year, but especially these playoffs.
Speaker 1: Everybody's watching. We know what he's done and what he's done.
Speaker 1: It's totally reinventing himself from the player that he was
Speaker 1: coming out of high school. Now I show I ended
Speaker 1: up showing the high school clips. He's coming down off
Speaker 1: the drip, but pull up three, you know, fake this way,
Speaker 1: go back that way, floaters like he's doing all of that.
Speaker 1: And when Cabin Looney was coming out of high school,
Speaker 1: people were comparing him to Kevin Durant. Now, I always
Speaker 1: get mad when people just compare tall, skinny guys to
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant, because that's what everyone wants to do. They
Speaker 1: look at a physique, they say, oh man, that guy's
Speaker 1: tall and skinny. He can handle the ball boom. That's
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant, and I think it is the absolute worst
Speaker 1: thing that people can do in basketball. Like you just
Speaker 1: don't you don't you don't just compare people to Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant because the stature, because the reality is it's Kevin Durant.
Speaker 1: It's arguably the most talented and skilled basketball player that
Speaker 1: we've ever seen in NBA history. We have not seen
Speaker 1: someone seventh beat dribbles the ball like a point guard,
Speaker 1: shoots the ball like a two guard, post up like
Speaker 1: a three four man, can protect the rim like a five.
Speaker 1: We've never seen this before. It's like if you if
Speaker 1: you went into a lab and they said, hey, you
Speaker 1: can create a player. You're going to create us. I
Speaker 1: used to do this on the way, so I can
Speaker 1: speak from experience. You're going to create a player that's
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant. You're gonna go create a guy that's six
Speaker 1: ten to seven feet somewhere and they're contribble, shoot pass.
Speaker 1: That's what you're going to create on NBA two K.
Speaker 1: I used to do it as a kid. It was
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant, and people used to always comparing to Kevin Durant.
Speaker 1: So I was showing them the player that he was
Speaker 1: before and who he has become. And I ain't just
Speaker 1: have an appreciation for him and the growth that he's had.
Speaker 1: You're talking to guy who came in and the moment
Speaker 1: he stepped foot in the NBA. He had two hip surgeonies,
Speaker 1: not one, not a risk surgery, not you know, he
Speaker 1: messed his shoulder up. He had two hip surgeonies. Now,
Speaker 1: hip surgeries are brutal. Number one, for those that don't
Speaker 1: know all of your nerves, could they All of that
Speaker 1: stuff is forming at your whether it's coming from the
Speaker 1: bottom of your body, or your lower body or your
Speaker 1: upper body, they're all forming at your hips. So just
Speaker 1: right there alone with the nerves and all of the
Speaker 1: things that you have, one of your hips as brutal.
Speaker 1: And so I can't say I expected this and the
Speaker 1: level that he's playing that. But what I can say
Speaker 1: is he is by far the most professional guy that
Speaker 1: I have ever been around in my career. From day
Speaker 1: one of him walking in here, he has worked like
Speaker 1: a veteran, not late for anything. Puts in all the
Speaker 1: extra work, whether it's in the weight room, whether it's
Speaker 1: on the court. He has done that since day one.
Speaker 1: And in my life I've seen hard work always fail.
Speaker 1: So to say that I thought he'd be at this level,
Speaker 1: I'd be totally lying to you. But to say that
Speaker 1: I'm surprised that he's playing at this level, I'm not
Speaker 1: because I've watched him put the work in over and
Speaker 1: over and over again, and yet have seen him catch
Speaker 1: tough breaks, and it's finally great to see the breaks
Speaker 1: are falling his way because he's worked is assa. The
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Speaker 1: You know it's um. And I said this when when
Speaker 1: Kadi left, I said, I think he's making a huge mistake.
Speaker 1: I said, you know how lucky you are to have
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame teammate, to Hall of Fame culture and
Speaker 1: people that are actively rooting for you. I just got
Speaker 1: den reading three rings on the Kobe Shack, Phil Jackson, Lakers,
Speaker 1: Draymond It was just a shit show man. It is brutal.
Speaker 1: I mean, you read it and it's like, this is
Speaker 1: brutal when you and you may be sensitive to talk
Speaker 1: about this, but when you watch Katie now and he's
Speaker 1: got some teammates that aren't always there for him, and
Speaker 1: I think, oh, bro, boy, you left, you left Rodeo
Speaker 1: drive a basketball man. This is the this is the
Speaker 1: highest end, this is the culture, the brains. Do you
Speaker 1: look at him now and what do you see and
Speaker 1: what do you think? Or do you not care? I care,
Speaker 1: one hundred percent care because that's my brother. And I
Speaker 1: always want to see him do well, whether that's here,
Speaker 1: whether that's in Brooklyn, whether he decides he wants to
Speaker 1: go play for Barcelona next year in euro League. I
Speaker 1: always want to see him do well because that bond,
Speaker 1: that relationship, it's always going to go much further than
Speaker 1: I can play basketball, and that he can play basketball.
Speaker 1: So I always want to see him do it, do well.
Speaker 1: So I do care. As far as caring if he's
Speaker 1: on our team or not, I can't care because that's
Speaker 1: not that's not up to me. That's not up to
Speaker 1: me from the team standpoint, that's not up to me
Speaker 1: from Kevin standpoint. What I will say is when when
Speaker 1: he decided that he was going to leave, I thought
Speaker 1: it was a mistake, not that it was not, and
Speaker 1: not for the reason that everyone else thinks it's a mistake.
Speaker 1: By the way, I thought it was a mistake because
Speaker 1: I know Kevin and what Kevin likes to do, and
Speaker 1: Kevin in his life the number one thing in Kevin's life,
Speaker 1: and that's not the case for most people, including NBA guys.
Speaker 1: By the way, like basketballall is the most important thing
Speaker 1: to me in my life. I'm I'm not going to
Speaker 1: sit here and lie to you and act like it is.
Speaker 1: It's not the most important thing in my life. It
Speaker 1: is extremely important, but it's not the most important thing
Speaker 1: in my life. Basketball is one hundred percent the most
Speaker 1: important thing in Kevin's life. It is the thing that
Speaker 1: he cares about himself more than anything in the world.
Speaker 1: And when Kevin was here, the reason I thought Kevin
Speaker 1: was making a mistake because I felt like, when Kevin
Speaker 1: was here, what he was allowed to do was to
Speaker 1: simply just go play basketball, which is what Kevin loves
Speaker 1: to do. And so it wasn't that he was going
Speaker 1: to play with Kyrie. It wasn't that, you know, everyone's like, oh,
Speaker 1: Kyrie isn't there. It wasn't any of that, or it
Speaker 1: wasn't like, oh man, you're winning championships. It was more
Speaker 1: so for me from a life standpoint, because again, I
Speaker 1: care about the person. I don't give a damn about
Speaker 1: the basketball player. He's a great basketball player, but I
Speaker 1: care about the person, and I just knew what makes
Speaker 1: him happy in his life is being able to to
Speaker 1: simply go play basketball. And so that's where the mistake
Speaker 1: was made for me. It's not that he wasn't going
Speaker 1: to go win, because again it's it's not proven that
Speaker 1: they're still not going to win. It takes time to
Speaker 1: build these things up, and I know everyone thinks, oh man,
Speaker 1: you put this team together and you're supposed to win
Speaker 1: in one or two years, and the reality is we
Speaker 1: all hope that it goes that way. But I mean,
Speaker 1: look at this Boston Celtics team. For every year for
Speaker 1: the last four years, they've said Jaylen Brown and Jason
Speaker 1: can't play together, and they figured it out. It takes
Speaker 1: time to build these things, and so I don't look
Speaker 1: at the whole their whole thing with the Brooklyn nets
Speaker 1: and say that's a failure, Like I don't know if
Speaker 1: that's a failure and that's not written, but whether that
Speaker 1: fails or succeeds, that wasn't the mistake to me. The
Speaker 1: mistake for me was simply from a life standpoint of
Speaker 1: what makes you happy. What makes you happy? I know you,
Speaker 1: you're my brother. What makes you happy is you're simply
Speaker 1: going to play basketball. And so that's where the mistake
Speaker 1: was made to me. Wasn't about winning championships or anything
Speaker 1: like that. When you see I said this today on
Speaker 1: the show, I said, I'm not really an awards guy,
Speaker 1: like I kind of believe in broadcasting. I know the
Speaker 1: guys or the women that are good, and I know
Speaker 1: the ones that are average, and awards isn't going to
Speaker 1: change my mind, and to me, Steph is one of
Speaker 1: the greatest players I've ever seen. One of the reasons
Speaker 1: I hold him in such high regard is that he
Speaker 1: doesn't care if he's Finals MVP. It doesn't appear to me.
Speaker 1: I said, there's a lot of guys in this league
Speaker 1: that care about that. And I said, but that's why
Speaker 1: Kevin Durrant worked, That's why everybody works. That's why he
Speaker 1: gets hurt. He'll, you know, Jordan Pool starts, he can
Speaker 1: come off the bench. I'm like, that's the essence of Steph.
Speaker 1: It's not a weakness. When you hear opinion shows and
Speaker 1: people in my space say that he needs an MVP
Speaker 1: in the finals to validate it, does is it ridiculous?
Speaker 1: Do you not hear it? What do you make of that?
Speaker 1: What I make of it, calling is that people need
Speaker 1: shiny objects for themselves to be able to have. They
Speaker 1: need those shiny objects for them to be able to
Speaker 1: analyze what's going on. They can't. They can't see what
Speaker 1: you just said, which is Steph. Steph could have definitely
Speaker 1: have finals MVPs because Steph has the ball like Steph. Now,
Speaker 1: Steph is coming down the court and he's calling sets
Speaker 1: and he's like, oh, we gotta mismatch with Kevin Durant.
Speaker 1: We're going to get Kevin Durant the ball every single
Speaker 1: time he can hijack the game, and no one's gonna
Speaker 1: say a word. If Steph Curry comes down and he
Speaker 1: calls for a pick and roll, everybody, nobody's going to
Speaker 1: say a word, including Kevin Durant. By the way, nobody's
Speaker 1: going to say anything. That's not who he is, that's
Speaker 1: not what he does. And so when you watch a
Speaker 1: game and Kevin Durant was absolutely incredible in those finals runs,
Speaker 1: as you know you watched it, we all watched it.
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant was absolutely insane. Steph Curry got double team
Speaker 1: probably seven times the amount that Katie did in a
Speaker 1: given series. So when you watch those games and you
Speaker 1: say his numbers could be a little down, he's facing
Speaker 1: a double team. And by the way, this isn't a
Speaker 1: double team from the Orlando Magic. This is a double
Speaker 1: team from a team that's playing in the finals, which
Speaker 1: we know if you're in the finals, you're going to
Speaker 1: have a good defense. These are real double teams. This
Speaker 1: ain't some team that's starting together a game playing the
Speaker 1: night before and then rolling their players out there that
Speaker 1: can't play half dead. This isn't that. This is elite
Speaker 1: teams throwing elite defenders at guys. And yet the guy
Speaker 1: who was still averages. I'm not sure what his finals averages,
Speaker 1: but I'd be willing to bet my bottom dollars nor
Speaker 1: from twenty three points. And so the games and the
Speaker 1: impact that he has on the game. If you don't
Speaker 1: understand basketball and thoroughly understand, not understand a statue, if
Speaker 1: you don't understand basketball, which most people don't in your space,
Speaker 1: then yeah, you're going to come out and you're gonna
Speaker 1: say he needs to validate that by finals MVP, because
Speaker 1: that's all you can see. You didn't go and you say,
Speaker 1: oh man, this guy won finals MVP. That must be
Speaker 1: the guy who's doing X, Y and Z. But if
Speaker 1: you can analyze the game and see that's where that's
Speaker 1: when I say new media, that's where I feel like
Speaker 1: this space is going a run. No one analyzes the
Speaker 1: game anymore. That's a law skill. No one does that.
Speaker 1: And if you have the potential or if you're capable
Speaker 1: of analyzing a game, then under no circumstances are you
Speaker 1: gonna say Steph Curry need the Finals MVP to validate
Speaker 1: who he is now? And saying all of that. When
Speaker 1: I look at Steph Curry, it's he is not made
Speaker 1: up of exactly what you said. He doesn't need those
Speaker 1: things to feel like Steph Curry. But as you do know,
Speaker 1: we live in a social media day and age where
Speaker 1: you see everything, you hear everything, and it's twenty four seven,
Speaker 1: you open your phone up, you see it. So now
Speaker 1: with Steph, does he feel like he needs to win
Speaker 1: the Finals MVP? It's not something he's ever said, but
Speaker 1: I would go out on the limits say I one
Speaker 1: hundred percent think he does not that he feels like
Speaker 1: that from the inside, but I feel like he's been
Speaker 1: made to feel that way. Oh man, he doesn't have this,
Speaker 1: he doesn't have that. This person not validating him, that
Speaker 1: person not validated. And ultimately it doesn't bring out the
Speaker 1: worst of him because he doesn't hijack games, go start
Speaker 1: trying to do that, and so it doesn't bring out
Speaker 1: the worst. But he's a competitor. He's an extreme competitor.
Speaker 1: You don't become that great if you're not. And so
Speaker 1: I think the competitor in him may feel like, yes,
Speaker 1: I definitely need to do that because X Y and
Speaker 1: Z all said that and I want to prove them wrong.
Speaker 1: Not necessarily that I need this Finals MVP to validate
Speaker 1: myself to you know who you know who he knows
Speaker 1: who he is. And so I think the pressure of
Speaker 1: the media, all the noise around will one hundred percent
Speaker 1: make you feel that way if you have a competitive
Speaker 1: spirit in you, which I know heat up. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: um as I watched the Maverick series and I know
Speaker 1: that's in the rear view mirror. But much like the Celtics,
Speaker 1: you know, they conference final experience, which you have a
Speaker 1: ton of and staff and Clay and cur the Celtics
Speaker 1: have a little. The Mavericks didn't have any when you
Speaker 1: were And I had said before the series, I said,
Speaker 1: Golden State is gonna win this, and they're gonna win
Speaker 1: it because they're gonna make Luca less efficient. They're gonna
Speaker 1: throw Andrew at him, and they're gonna throw a dre
Speaker 1: maybe Kuminga. And I said, you're not gonna shoot forty
Speaker 1: eight percent. He's gonna shoot like forty two percent, and
Speaker 1: that'll just be enough. And also because you're older players.
Speaker 1: You guys can do four different defensive alignments on four
Speaker 1: trips down the floor. A lot of teams can't do that.
Speaker 1: So you guys are it's like a Belichick defense. You
Speaker 1: guys are throwing shit at guys every time down the court.
Speaker 1: And that's just a lot as the game's pace is
Speaker 1: very fast. But did you feel at any point, all
Speaker 1: you veterans around Luca, did you sense the frustration the
Speaker 1: body language like the kid, the kid is learning American
Speaker 1: conference finals level, sort of like as I watched it,
Speaker 1: I watched this body language and I was like, Oh,
Speaker 1: this is conference finals basketball, this is less in time,
Speaker 1: this is That's what it felt like to me as
Speaker 1: a consumer. Absolutely. Now what I will say is this,
Speaker 1: I'll never forget this because I remember how upset people
Speaker 1: got when he said it. But I remember when Luca
Speaker 1: first came into the league and he made a statement
Speaker 1: where he said it was easier, it's easier to score
Speaker 1: in the NBA than it was for him in Europe.
Speaker 1: I remember he made that statement. He's proven actually that
Speaker 1: that is true with how he's played since he made
Speaker 1: that statement. But I also remember how upset everyone got
Speaker 1: when he made that statement. Like, who does this guy
Speaker 1: think he is and blah blah blah, and this is
Speaker 1: the NBA. And when he said it, I immediately was like,
Speaker 1: that makes sense. I know what you mean. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you I've had the opportunity in the honor of
Speaker 1: competing in two Olympics and if you ever played FEBA basketball.
Speaker 1: I mean, those guys are still playing Rudy Gobert in
Speaker 1: the center, his size, that moves like him together and
Speaker 1: they just can sit in the paint and you can't
Speaker 1: get there, you can't into the rim. They got two
Speaker 1: big logs just standing there. That is the that's that's
Speaker 1: the feeble way of basketball. We saw some of that
Speaker 1: this summer when we when we obviously we went on
Speaker 1: to win the gold medal. I said all of that
Speaker 1: to say, for me personally, I have to rebody language,
Speaker 1: like that's one of my roles that that's how I
Speaker 1: can feed off of, um, you know, a guy's frustration,
Speaker 1: or that's how I can get into someone's head or
Speaker 1: you know, whatever I need to do on my end
Speaker 1: to help my team. I have to understand and pay
Speaker 1: attention to body language because I have to be able
Speaker 1: to go back to Andrew Wiggins say, Wiggs, you know
Speaker 1: there was one game, I think it was Game two,
Speaker 1: and Wiggs we had a couple of possessions and Wigs
Speaker 1: that you know, they were up in game two and
Speaker 1: and then we made that run there in the second quarter,
Speaker 1: and he had a couple turnovers in the row, and
Speaker 1: he came down and drove and Wiggs was bumping him,
Speaker 1: pumping him, and Wiggs had his arms up, and then
Speaker 1: Luca faded back and he was looking for the past.
Speaker 1: There's no pass there. He turned back to shoot it,
Speaker 1: and Wiggs reached down and followed him, and I told Wiggs,
Speaker 1: I said, he had two turnovers in the row, a
Speaker 1: misshot before that misshot, then two turnovers in the row,
Speaker 1: and now this possession. You were about to break him
Speaker 1: if he missed that shot or turn that ball over,
Speaker 1: you were about to break him. You just bailed him
Speaker 1: out with that file. Now he's about to go get
Speaker 1: two free throws. You have to break that rhythm up
Speaker 1: again because those two free throws are going to help
Speaker 1: him find this rhythm. And do you totally break a
Speaker 1: player like Luca Donches. No, you never break a guy
Speaker 1: like that, but you could one hundred percent since the frustration. Now, Harris,
Speaker 1: who you break. If you can send my break him,
Speaker 1: If you can send my break him, you break all
Speaker 1: the other guys because they don't know where to turn,
Speaker 1: if they can't turn and look at him and see
Speaker 1: him with his provado, him with his confidence coming down,
Speaker 1: knowing these guys can't stop me. But I don't even
Speaker 1: want the shot right now. I want a shot for
Speaker 1: jayleb Brunson. So let me get a shot for Jay
Speaker 1: leb Brunson. That's who all those guys look too, for
Speaker 1: their confidence and so not necessarily that you're going to
Speaker 1: break him and take him out of the game. You're
Speaker 1: never gonna do that. But if you can shake him
Speaker 1: a little bit, you really shake the rest of the guys.
Speaker 1: And so we definitely saw the frustration, and obviously against him,
Speaker 1: we knew you're not going to lock him down. There's
Speaker 1: a lot like James Harden. We knew, hey, man, this
Speaker 1: guy may come out, he may have a great first quarter,
Speaker 1: he may come out, he may have a great second quarter.
Speaker 1: But over the course of forty eight minutes, if we
Speaker 1: can just keep throwing bodies at him and wear him
Speaker 1: down by the time we get to the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: those legs are going to be gone. And what we
Speaker 1: ended up seeing is, over the case of forty eight minutes,
Speaker 1: if you just continue to bodies at him, defend without following,
Speaker 1: trying not to give up easy things. Then a couple
Speaker 1: of times in that series he got to that third
Speaker 1: quarter and he was a little gas And that's kind
Speaker 1: of what you want to do against a guy like
Speaker 1: that over the course of forty eight minutes. You want
Speaker 1: to wear him down. And I think we were able
Speaker 1: to do a good job with that, in large part
Speaker 1: due to Andrew's constant ball pressure, picking him up ninety
Speaker 1: four feet away from the basket each time he brought
Speaker 1: the ball up, and you can really, really really sense
Speaker 1: the frustration throughout the series. Everybody's got influences quarterbacks, talk
Speaker 1: show hosts. I've never heard you mention this, and I apologize.
Speaker 1: If you have your style of play and where you
Speaker 1: grew up, who is your primary influence my style of
Speaker 1: playing where I grew up. My primary influence for me
Speaker 1: was my uncle, my uncle Benny. He taught me the
Speaker 1: game of basketball, and he did it in a way.
Speaker 1: It's funny because a couple of years ago we were
Speaker 1: all sitting together my family, and he said, man, I
Speaker 1: really feel good about the things that I taught y'all.
Speaker 1: He said. The one thing I never taught y'all is
Speaker 1: one on one scoring. He said, I never taught y'all that.
Speaker 1: But everything else I know for certain I taught y'all,
Speaker 1: But I never taught y'all one on one scoring. He said.
Speaker 1: If there's one regret I have when I look back,
Speaker 1: is that I should have taught a little bit more
Speaker 1: of that. Not that I should have taught less of
Speaker 1: anything else, but I should have taught y'all a little
Speaker 1: bit more of just one on one scoring and attacking.
Speaker 1: I said all of that to say, that is the
Speaker 1: person who taught me basketball. That's the person who taught
Speaker 1: me helps out of defense. That is the person who
Speaker 1: taught me defensive principles, standing between your man and the ball,
Speaker 1: and like all the cliche things that you're taught on
Speaker 1: the defensive end that everyone moves on and in the
Speaker 1: course of their careers and then tend to ignore those
Speaker 1: same principles that he taught me, they are the same
Speaker 1: principles that are used today. Now, you know, in elementary school,
Speaker 1: they maybe you don't let someone drive baseline and you
Speaker 1: you let make them drive middle right. And then in
Speaker 1: the NBA it's no middle clothes out like yeah, you
Speaker 1: get little tweaks here and there. But the fundamentals of defense.
Speaker 1: My uncle taught me that the fundamental of reading an
Speaker 1: offensive play and reading how a defense is guarding you,
Speaker 1: and understanding the tendencies of the guys you're playing with
Speaker 1: and where to get them the ball, and how to
Speaker 1: get them the ball and put them in position. My
Speaker 1: uncle taught me a lot of that. Now. I was
Speaker 1: then blessed to have great coaches, Coach Dawkins, coach Speedy
Speaker 1: Um obviously coaches though along along my path. But my
Speaker 1: uncle is the person who laid the foundation for me,
Speaker 1: who taught me how to play good basketball. It was
Speaker 1: never just roll the balls out of Hey, guys, y'all
Speaker 1: go play, you know, and hey, you know all rights
Speaker 1: practice town, you roll let's pick up like no. We
Speaker 1: for two the first two weeks of the season, we
Speaker 1: wouldn't touch a basketball. And so that's who laid the
Speaker 1: foundation for me and the player that I've become. I
Speaker 1: don't want to create bulletin board material. Five minutes left,
Speaker 1: so you haven't jumped into the game plan on the Celtics,
Speaker 1: but you've played them before. It to a very good
Speaker 1: defensive team. Every player that starts for them got to
Speaker 1: vote for all defense. You guys were third, they were first.
Speaker 1: I think you guys are about as versatile as Boston,
Speaker 1: maybe more so, with much more experience. If I said
Speaker 1: to you, give me one memory this year of the
Speaker 1: earlier games against the Celtics. What if you're head on
Speaker 1: the pillow going to bed, you're thinking about the Celtics,
Speaker 1: what comes to mind. What comes to mind for me
Speaker 1: is in that second game that we played, it was
Speaker 1: I remembered the game like it was just I think
Speaker 1: it was my second game back from my back injury.
Speaker 1: And what jumps out at me is the way Robert
Speaker 1: Williams erasist mistakes. You know. So they're this great defensive
Speaker 1: team one hundred percent, if anyone agrees as me. I
Speaker 1: love defense. I love to watch it, and so I
Speaker 1: really enjoy watching their team because they're they're a damn
Speaker 1: good defensive team. But I think what people don't realize
Speaker 1: is is how many mistakes that Robert Williams covers up
Speaker 1: for and how many mistakes that Marcus Smart covers up
Speaker 1: for now. Robert Williams covers up the mistakes at the rim.
Speaker 1: He's eracing shots left and right. Jordan Poole had had
Speaker 1: one where he cut down the lane, didn't even know
Speaker 1: he was open, and I dropped it down the lane.
Speaker 1: By the time he turned the lane it up. Robert
Speaker 1: Williams came from the corner. No, he came from the
Speaker 1: opposite wing and blocked the shot. Was nowhere in the play.
Speaker 1: He had a couple more plays like that in that game.
Speaker 1: And so Marcus Smart covers up mistakes beneath the room.
Speaker 1: You know, he covers up. He MUCKs up a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff. He gets gritty and gets into the ball
Speaker 1: and throw your time and on your ball screens off.
Speaker 1: And then they and you know most defenses has one
Speaker 1: guy that covers up mistakes. They uniquely have two, and
Speaker 1: they play two totally different positions. You have one covering
Speaker 1: up out on the floor of mistakes and then you
Speaker 1: have one covering mistakes at the rim. And I think
Speaker 1: that is what really makes their defense special. And then
Speaker 1: you have al Horford who just know everywhere to be.
Speaker 1: You know what you're trying to Colin al Horford knows
Speaker 1: what you're trying to do. He knows what I'm trying
Speaker 1: to do. And so when you add those ingredients along
Speaker 1: with Jason's length, along with Jayla's lane and those other
Speaker 1: ingredients around that, you have yourself and absolutely incredible defense.
Speaker 1: So that's the one thing that truly jumps out at
Speaker 1: me is how they have multiple guys that can cover
Speaker 1: mistakes for other guys and that makes for a great defense. Okay,
Speaker 1: you have one hundred and fifty technical foul and most
Speaker 1: of them I think have been by design. Uh some
Speaker 1: times to motivate your team. Um, by the way, I
Speaker 1: covered Rashid Wallace, so you ain't close to that. He
Speaker 1: got double now that covered him. I covered him in Portland.
Speaker 1: He had a he had a forty game stretch where
Speaker 1: I think he had thirty. Okay, so there's five active
Speaker 1: players that have more than you. I'm just gonna give
Speaker 1: you DeMarcus Cousins because I know you would have guessed
Speaker 1: that one. Absolutely. There's four guys left guess one. Four? Yeah, yes, Um,
Speaker 1: you know who's who's He's very sneaky win it. I
Speaker 1: don't think he has more, but I would love to
Speaker 1: nois count And that's Paul George. He's not here, but
Speaker 1: he's sneaky. Is quite a bit of text. Three to one.
Speaker 1: I would not guessed this. Carmelo Anthony has one ninety three.
Speaker 1: I could definitely see Melo getting tax all for sure.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure how I missed out on mel Melo
Speaker 1: be talking about. I mean, obviously Melo has gotten you know,
Speaker 1: he's in Europe nineteen now. He's toned it down a bit.
Speaker 1: But Mellow be talking crazy the roughferees like, I would
Speaker 1: never forget this game. We were playing in the garden,
Speaker 1: and if I'm not mistaken, it actually I think it's
Speaker 1: the same game where Steph shimmy passed me and I
Speaker 1: was standing there like this, but after that was the
Speaker 1: game he had fifty foreign the garden. If I'm not mistaken,
Speaker 1: and I'm standing there like this after the three and
Speaker 1: he shimmy passed me, I think it was the same
Speaker 1: as that game. But Mellow, I would never forget this.
Speaker 1: He got the ball. I was guarding him. He got
Speaker 1: the ball, and he like mid posts, caught it, put
Speaker 1: his head down, boom into my chest, try to lay
Speaker 1: it up, and you know I held my ground and
Speaker 1: he missed it. And he turned to the rough called
Speaker 1: the motherfucking file. I'm like, WHOA. So now we come
Speaker 1: back down. Mellow, being who Mellow is, he goes to
Speaker 1: the same exact spot, gets the ball, this is the
Speaker 1: very next play, and does the same exact move, same
Speaker 1: exact move, creates the same exact contact boom, and he
Speaker 1: gets the file. He's like, yeah, motherfucker got damn. And
Speaker 1: then he walked. He walks, just walks onto the free
Speaker 1: throw line. Now he didn't get attected in that instance,
Speaker 1: but that's kind of a microcosm of who Mellow is
Speaker 1: and how he went about or goes about his business
Speaker 1: on the court. And then you add in that all
Speaker 1: it takes us for a guy to say one word
Speaker 1: to Mellow and he not stopping. So then you added
Speaker 1: adding that side of things where he talking to guys
Speaker 1: and going that guy and get texts on that side.
Speaker 1: So I can't I can't necessarily say that I'm shocked
Speaker 1: by Mellow having one ninety three because I've I've seen
Speaker 1: Melo say some crazy shit on the court, so I'm
Speaker 1: not shocked by that one. But I'm actually pretty upset
Speaker 1: that I didn't guess it's five o'clock. That's your limit.
Speaker 1: We gotta go thirty. We do have to go, but
Speaker 1: before we go, because I bought it, I bought an
Speaker 1: extra couple of minutes. Um, because I noticed I've been
Speaker 1: looking forward to this since I since I signed with
Speaker 1: the volume for the Draymond Green Show. The one thing
Speaker 1: I asked them as I said, am I gonna be on?
Speaker 1: Am I gonna be able to go on college podcast?
Speaker 1: Because I've always wanted So I've watched it for years.
Speaker 1: I've watched you for years, and so I'm like, I've
Speaker 1: always wanted to come on here. So we're not about
Speaker 1: to rush out of this one. Um. I have a
Speaker 1: question for you. About a year ago, maybe two two
Speaker 1: years ago, you said, Steph Curry, if he wants to
Speaker 1: see another NBA finals ever play in the NBA Finals again,
Speaker 1: he has to leave Golden State to do that. Here's
Speaker 1: my question. What was it for you that made you think,
Speaker 1: at any point, if plays healthy, I'm healthy and STEP's
Speaker 1: healthy all at the same time, that we couldn't do
Speaker 1: it again just like we did it before. Because I
Speaker 1: just want to know this whole notion is like what's
Speaker 1: Kevin left the whole world? Wrote us off like that
Speaker 1: is the end, as if we didn't do it before.
Speaker 1: So I just want to know the thinking behind that
Speaker 1: helped me understand that college all right, So this is
Speaker 1: a big brain. There's a lot of stuff moving in there.
Speaker 1: So in a cap league, I think my takeaway and
Speaker 1: I do three hours a day. So I don't know
Speaker 1: where I was then, but my sense was Steph had
Speaker 1: some injuries, Clay was hurt again, Draymond. It's it's easier
Speaker 1: to remain a good offensive player in the league than
Speaker 1: a great defensive player because defense is much harder. There's
Speaker 1: gonna be capish us. You're paying paying all of them.
Speaker 1: A couple of the draft picks were eh. This was
Speaker 1: like before we knew Jordan Poole's going to work and
Speaker 1: my takeaways injuries really expensive, I don't think it's going
Speaker 1: to work, and the West is getting better. Remember at
Speaker 1: that time, I think Paul had come in, Kawhi had
Speaker 1: come in, Lebron had come in a d and I'm
Speaker 1: thinking two things in sports that are bad, expensive and old,
Speaker 1: and so I thought, yes, time to bail. Now. Of
Speaker 1: course history has proved that I was an idiot, but
Speaker 1: in that moment, I thought I was Einstein. I thought
Speaker 1: I was really onto something. But man, you talked three
Speaker 1: hours a day. You know what it's like. It that's
Speaker 1: my version of a four turnover game. I just didn't
Speaker 1: have respect. I could respect that, I could respect you know, honestly,
Speaker 1: honestly though, Colin is I went number one. Three hours
Speaker 1: a day is insane. I was speaking to someone like,
Speaker 1: what you want to do when you're done. I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I want to do some of this and they're like, yo,
Speaker 1: you know, Colin, those guys they do three hours, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm not sure I can quite do three
Speaker 1: hours a day. That's absolutely incredible with you. It's Stephen
Speaker 1: ays like, I just don't understand how y'all can focus
Speaker 1: on sports that long be as precise and poling as
Speaker 1: you guys are. So kudos. I take my hat off
Speaker 1: to y'all for that. It's absolutely incredible. But where I
Speaker 1: will cut you a little slacker is here most people
Speaker 1: thought we were older than we are, Like, I think
Speaker 1: we start winning at such a young age, like I
Speaker 1: won my first championship, our first championship playing Our were
Speaker 1: twenty five and so, and then we go to five
Speaker 1: straight finals. So from twenty to thirty we're in the
Speaker 1: NBA finals. Thirty isn't old. But when you see guys
Speaker 1: for five years straight at the highest level, it's going
Speaker 1: to give you this this mindset and these thoughts of
Speaker 1: that we are older than we really are, then we
Speaker 1: truly are. And I think that's what happened with a
Speaker 1: lot of people. It's like, oh, they're old. There is
Speaker 1: and it's like most guys in the league are somewhere
Speaker 1: around our age. You know, you obviously have a bunch
Speaker 1: of young guys, but like they say, from what twenty
Speaker 1: eight to thirty three is your pride, and it's like, oh, man,
Speaker 1: those guys are done because they're old. And so I
Speaker 1: get it because I actually had that problem in college
Speaker 1: where my first two years I went to the Final four,
Speaker 1: and then the next two years I'm playing college basketball
Speaker 1: and everybody like, man, you still in college and I'm like, yeah, dude,
Speaker 1: I'm only I'm only a junior. Like I said, come
Speaker 1: more years left. And so I do think some of
Speaker 1: that was definitely a product of so much winning in
Speaker 1: a short amount of time. But on the flip side
Speaker 1: of that, and I'll be one hundred percent honest with you.
Speaker 1: I haven't told anyone this. As much as I believe
Speaker 1: we would be good again, I wasn't. I can't say
Speaker 1: that I was so certain that with the way our
Speaker 1: roster had turned over, that we would win a championship
Speaker 1: again because, like you said, we had myself, we had stuff,
Speaker 1: we had Clay, but the roster turn Like if you
Speaker 1: look at some of those teams, if you look at
Speaker 1: some of those lineups that I was out there with
Speaker 1: in the year we won fifteen games, I'd be a
Speaker 1: fool and a liar and full of ship, which I
Speaker 1: try to part myself on not being if I told
Speaker 1: you in that moment, I'm still like, yeah, we're going
Speaker 1: to compete for championships, like we can't. I mean some
Speaker 1: of those lineups, I was the point guard and Eric
Speaker 1: Pascal was two, and the Mark Spelman was the three,
Speaker 1: and Willie callings Down was the four, Kavan Looni was
Speaker 1: the five. Like we saw some of those things, and
Speaker 1: so I get it. I definitely understand it, but it
Speaker 1: still pisces me off that y'all will just count us out,
Speaker 1: like like we haven't done this before. He's crazy. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, the other thing was what you guys, do
Speaker 1: you were a second rounder? H Stephen Clay were probably
Speaker 1: under drafted. Jordan Pool at one point went to the
Speaker 1: G League Kominga. You know, Steve's not gonna play rookies
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. Kominga's twitchy as hell. So what you
Speaker 1: guys do is the opposite of what the Lakers do.
Speaker 1: You draft and develop in your patient. Like, so guys,
Speaker 1: and you're if you watch you or just your team,
Speaker 1: you'll draft guys, You'll develop them, and they can disappear
Speaker 1: for a while, like like you're not going to play
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, and so as a media guy, I'm like, like,
Speaker 1: cominga to me, I thought he'd play more against and
Speaker 1: I'm like, no, you're not gonna play much. So unless
Speaker 1: you're a die hard, like if you live in the
Speaker 1: Bay Area and you're literally watching every second of every
Speaker 1: Warrior's game, it's different. You use different players. I mean,
Speaker 1: Steph comes back and Jordan Pool starts and steps on
Speaker 1: the bench, and I'm thinking, well, he's not gonna he's
Speaker 1: not gonna be great. Hell, he can't start. But your
Speaker 1: culture is different. You guys do what big market teams
Speaker 1: mostly don't. You draft, you develop your patient and it's like,
Speaker 1: that's not the way the Yankees work, that's not the
Speaker 1: way the Dodgers work, that's not the way the cowboys,
Speaker 1: like big brands usually win. But like Wiggins comes in,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure, Oh shit, he's pretty good. Then Steph
Speaker 1: gets hurt, he's not great in the second half, and
Speaker 1: you're like, I'm not sure if he's ready. And then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, I watch him against the MAVs
Speaker 1: and I'm like, he's as valuable as anybody in the series. So,
Speaker 1: and you guys have so much depth. It's really to
Speaker 1: me is a consumer of it. You have so much depth.
Speaker 1: Kerr is doing so many different things. It's hard to
Speaker 1: predict you guys. I mean, I think you would admit this.
Speaker 1: There are nights against Memphis you're like, wow, that's bad.
Speaker 1: There are halves against Dallas, Wow, and then the next
Speaker 1: quarter you're brilliant. So you guys are a lot of
Speaker 1: variables and a lot of moving parts, and you experiment.
Speaker 1: So you're not simple. You're a complex culture. That's how
Speaker 1: I view it. Absolutely, no, I agree one Honestly, I
Speaker 1: have to give credit where credit is due. A large
Speaker 1: fire guy is coach Kerr and the way he coaches,
Speaker 1: in which he never lets a guy rock on the bench.
Speaker 1: You know, you would go around certain teams and you're like, man,
Speaker 1: this guy has collected twenty DMPs in a row. You
Speaker 1: would never in your life, in the history of Steve
Speaker 1: Kerr coaching, find anyone unless it's a playoff game, and playoffs,
Speaker 1: you would never find anyone under Steve's Kerr's tutelitch or
Speaker 1: if you will, or under his tree, and I mean
Speaker 1: tree as far as as players that's going to collect
Speaker 1: twenty DMPs in a row. It's not how he coaches. Now,
Speaker 1: you may collect four in a row and then he's like, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna put you into the second quarter because he
Speaker 1: doesn't believe and a guy just sitting and riding on
Speaker 1: the bench because in Steve, the way Steve coaches and
Speaker 1: he preaches it and he lives by it, is at
Speaker 1: some point we're going to need each one of you
Speaker 1: guys to win a game. And I can't expect you
Speaker 1: to be able to help us win a game if
Speaker 1: you sat for twenty games straight and then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden something happened and I come to you. I
Speaker 1: think in large a large part of that is due
Speaker 1: to his career and maybe what he didn't like as
Speaker 1: a player because he was sometimes in that position. And
Speaker 1: so I have to give credit to him. And then
Speaker 1: I also have to give credit to Bob Myers and
Speaker 1: then the ownership group. And why I'm giving them credit
Speaker 1: is when you say taking young talent and being willing
Speaker 1: to wait and to defend, Like, yes, obviously, in order
Speaker 1: to in order to be willing to wait, you have
Speaker 1: to have talents like Steph Curry, like Klay Thompson, like
Speaker 1: myself that can still be getting done. Because one thing
Speaker 1: I can ensure you is Joe Lacob is not okay
Speaker 1: to losing. I mean, if you ever see Joe Lacob
Speaker 1: on the sideline when we're losing the game by four points,
Speaker 1: he said, this is ridiculous. It's what you gotta love
Speaker 1: about Joe. Like he he he does not understand losing
Speaker 1: to the to the smallest degree, and so for him,
Speaker 1: he's never gonna settle for losing. Now, where the credit
Speaker 1: comes in is being willing to hold on to younger
Speaker 1: guys and not be so hell bent on we need
Speaker 1: to We need to get all these young guys in
Speaker 1: here and bring in experience, experienced role players, because if
Speaker 1: I'm being honest with you, we all would have voted
Speaker 1: to bring in experience because like I and in the
Speaker 1: beginning of this season, and I spoke about it before
Speaker 1: Bob and I was pissed at me. Steve was pissed
Speaker 1: at me because I said in my press conference, I said,
Speaker 1: we've never seen the mix of young guys and older
Speaker 1: guys work. We've never seen it work like we've always
Speaker 1: seen that, like, oh man, this team is card in
Speaker 1: between whether they should go with experience or whether they
Speaker 1: should go young. And it's a total disaster. And I
Speaker 1: said in my press comperence, I said, we've never seen
Speaker 1: it work. But for us, And when I say us,
Speaker 1: I mean myself and play and stuff. Andre For us,
Speaker 1: that is the challenge, and you want as a competitor,
Speaker 1: you want to take on that challenge and you want
Speaker 1: to see it work. But if we could all just
Speaker 1: had a vote and said, the way we know for
Speaker 1: serving it works is by bringing in experience around us,
Speaker 1: guys that can understand this cut and understand that and
Speaker 1: think on the fly and they understand the NBA game.
Speaker 1: Now are our front office totally disagree? They wanted to
Speaker 1: stick with the younger guys and us and it's worked,
Speaker 1: and so I have to give them a lot of
Speaker 1: credit for their belief in it and them understanding and
Speaker 1: ultimately knowing because they, you know, we have conversations about
Speaker 1: personnel like this isn't just a situation where they're like,
Speaker 1: all right, these are the guys you have to play
Speaker 1: with the here you go like, no, they there's a
Speaker 1: respect level there that they have an appreciation that they
Speaker 1: have for us and we have for them, and we
Speaker 1: have those conversations and if it was up to us,
Speaker 1: of course, we would all loved to have a ton
Speaker 1: of experience. They thought totally different. Ultimately we went with
Speaker 1: that tide of things and they were one hundred percent right.
Speaker 1: So you have to give them credit for being willing
Speaker 1: to go out on that limb with the second highest
Speaker 1: payroll in the NBA and saying, no, we think we
Speaker 1: can get it done this way and that's the route
Speaker 1: we're going to go. And it's been beautiful and helping
Speaker 1: these young guys grow and watching them grow, it's brought
Speaker 1: me a different joy to this year because it's not
Speaker 1: just about I mean, on those final runs, I was
Speaker 1: the young Clay was the young guy, Steph was the
Speaker 1: young guy. We had David west Side side Barbosa and
Speaker 1: the beat goes on. And so now being in a
Speaker 1: position to help do it's brought me a ton of joy.
Speaker 1: And I'm extremely happy that they decided to go the
Speaker 1: route that they did, because if they did and it
Speaker 1: was this experience, then it's just more the same, right,
Speaker 1: Like it's more of what we already done and trying
Speaker 1: to do again. So I love the challenge and it's
Speaker 1: been amazing for us. Well, you've been amazing for us.
Speaker 1: What people don't realize that may listen to this is
Speaker 1: that Draymond, more than any professional athlete I've ever probably
Speaker 1: work with at a podcast company or a television network
Speaker 1: or radio network, has demanded at the volume that we're
Speaker 1: we hard coach him that he doesn't want to hear
Speaker 1: us say he's great. He's not interested. He's like, what
Speaker 1: am I bad at? I want to be better? And
Speaker 1: it's incredibly rare, but I think it speaks volume. I
Speaker 1: told my wife, she's a Michigan girl, and I told her,
Speaker 1: I said, the beauty of Draymond the second round picks,
Speaker 1: giving him a chip on his shoulder. It doesn't matter
Speaker 1: how rich he is, doesn't matter how many rings that stuff.
Speaker 1: That stuff doesn't leave you. I said, he is a
Speaker 1: podcaster like he's a player. He gets up every morning,
Speaker 1: coach me hard. I want to be better, and I
Speaker 1: canna tell you as a broadcaster like it's unbelievable. I've
Speaker 1: been doing this twenty five years. Man, you are one
Speaker 1: of one. Got your back forever, and I just love
Speaker 1: that you gave us. First of all, you gave us
Speaker 1: sixteen minutes more than you were supposed to. You got
Speaker 1: shit to do, so go do it all right. I
Speaker 1: appreciate you having me on, and from the bottom of
Speaker 1: my heart, I just appreciate the entire company and logan
Speaker 1: working with Jackson Is. It's been an honor. You know.
Speaker 1: I did the podcasting before, and it was really early.
Speaker 1: I wasn't truly committed to it. I'm kind of doing
Speaker 1: it at my pace, and like, all right, after four
Speaker 1: weeks off, let's let's record an episode. And I told myself,
Speaker 1: if I ever got back into it, I have to
Speaker 1: go back into it with the mindset that I'm trying
Speaker 1: to build something, with the mindset that it takes time
Speaker 1: and effort, and a commitment to it. And I remember
Speaker 1: the first week we took off this year, like Jackson
Speaker 1: had to really fight me on that, Like, no, Draymond,
Speaker 1: I think we could take this week off because I
Speaker 1: just didn't want to, Like I want to. I want
Speaker 1: to stay true to it and be great at it.
Speaker 1: And so the coaching that you mentioned, I appreciate it
Speaker 1: was I've learned so much this year in doing this
Speaker 1: and how to how to keep it going and not
Speaker 1: how the breaks in the action and just so many
Speaker 1: different things and nuances that I've picked up. And it's
Speaker 1: in large part due to the coaching, you know. And
Speaker 1: so you know, I watched film on myself with these things,
Speaker 1: and I take notes with the coaching and try to
Speaker 1: incorporate that into my next segment. And so, you know,
Speaker 1: for for you guys to be experts in this space
Speaker 1: and have all the experience that you all have, I am,
Speaker 1: I am. I appreciate you all for teaching me and
Speaker 1: showing me how this podcast thing should be done. Because
Speaker 1: in Mama High college, I thought it was just you
Speaker 1: gonna pick up a microphone and you go talk and
Speaker 1: it just flows, and it's so different. And so I
Speaker 1: appreciate the coaching and the belief in me because I think, um,
Speaker 1: I think we're making this thing great man, and that's
Speaker 1: my goal in it. So I appreciate you. Well, I'm
Speaker 1: not supposed to root for players or teams, but it's
Speaker 1: as I as I've sat on my show now, every
Speaker 1: time I mentioned you, I say, Draymond Green hall of
Speaker 1: Famer eventually, and the best sports podcast in America. I'm
Speaker 1: very proud and keep kicking it. You're crushing for us,
Speaker 1: and good luck, buddy, Thank you. I appreciate it. The volume,
Speaker 1: make sure to check out The Draymond Green Show. I
Speaker 1: brought Draymond Green into the volume because one of the
Speaker 1: more entertaining voices in sports. Unique perspective understands behind the rope,
Speaker 1: also chops up with guests like Gary Peyton, Zach Levine,
Speaker 1: Tracy McGrady. Make sure download The Draymond Green Show wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts, only on the Volume podcast Network.