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NBA FINALS: CAVALIERS v WARRIORS

June 19, 2016

Draymond Green

Oakland, California: Game Seven

Cavaliers 93, Warriors 89

Q. Draymond, you guys have never lost a series in this era with Steve Kerr. What is the feeling when you realize it's over? What goes through your mind? Is it almost a sense of disbelief?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I mean, it sucks. Obviously, you hate to lose being we had a 3-1 lead. So you think about all that stuff. You think about: What if? What if I would have done this? What if I would have done that? All that stuff replays in your head.

But you've got to give them a lot of credit. They were down 3-1. They continued to battle, and they never quit. Their leaders led. LeBron put the team on his back, Kyrie put the team on his back, and everybody followed suit.

Tristan was amazing throughout the course of this series, and, like I said, everybody else followed suit. I'm not sure if it's more so about what we did than you've just got to give them credit. They battled, and they deserved to win it.

Q. What do you think decided this game, this particular game, particularly the fourth quarter?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I mean, we can all look and say, if I did this, I did that, like I said before, if I don't turn this ball over, if I get this stop. At the end of the day, we missed shots down the stretch. They missed them too. But they made the one big one. Kyrie knocked it down, and that's what gave them the lead, and, I mean, that's it.

So I think it was a great game. Both teams battled. They made the shot down the stretch that they needed to make, and we couldn't.

Q. What are your thoughts after being suspended for Game 5 and then playing the Game 7 of your life like that? How are you feeling about your impact on this series?
DRAYMOND GREEN: Don't matter. Game 7 doesn't matter. We didn't win. So we can look at a stat line and say, oh, he was great or whatever, but we didn't win. So that really doesn't matter.

As far as being suspended for Game 5, you know, I learned a lot. I learned a lot about myself. I learned a lot as a man, as a teammate, as a basketball player, however you want to put it. I learned a lot that will help me for the rest of my life.

And this Playoff run for me has been a bunch of highs and a few lows, and the lows have kind of been tough. Because there have been some instances where character was attacked and said being suspended for a game, not being able to be out there with my teammates, you know, it's been a pretty tough road.

But through it all, like I said, I learned a lot that will help me for the rest of my career. Hey, you can't win them all. Obviously we'd love to be sitting here spraying champagne on each other and all that stuff, but it didn't happen. But I'm happy with the way we went out, and we just got to continue to get better and try to get back next year.

Q. You guys went after every record in front of you, 24-0, 73, what's it mean for the season now that you guys are not the champions at the end?
DRAYMOND GREEN: All that stuff is still there. We did all those things. I think it's been a great season for us. Obviously everybody will say, oh, man, they won 73 but they didn't win a championship. We didn't. But I think this team accomplished a lot of great things individually and as a team, and those things can never be taken away. We set up and we had a goal at the beginning of the year to repeat, and that goal we failed, but I don't look at this entire season as a failure because there's been too many great things that happened to this team and to this group of guys, to this coaching staff, to this organization.

So it's been an amazing year. We just failed at one goal we had, but this whole season isn't a failure to me. We accomplished some great things. We didn't reach the end prize, but there will be more years for that.

Q. When you talked about lessons to learn from and also your character being unfairly attacked, when you look back at what happened at the end of Game 4, do you look at that as something where you need to learn from what you did, or do you think it was a situation where your character was unfairly attacked?
DRAYMOND GREEN: Oh, like I said, regardless if it's unfairly attacked or attacked, I really don't care. I put myself in a position, like I said before, for it to be attacked, and that's what I learned. Don't put yourself in a position. If you don't put yourself in a position, it won't be attacked.

I didn't say unfairly attacked, unfairly attacked, because I don't feel it was unfairly attacked. Like I said, I put myself in that position, and once you put yourself in that position, everything goes then.

But like I said, I learned from it, and that's the most important thing to me. If I don't put myself in that position and I don't get suspended for Game 5, are we sitting here champions? Maybe, maybe not. I don't know. But we'll never know the answer to that question. But the answer that I do know is I won't put myself in that position again, and that's all I can really do, you know.

I think in life you learn from things and you use those things down the line and just don't let it happen again. I'll take the good with the bad. I'm not the guy who rides high when things are going well and say, oh, man, this is great, I'm this, I'm that, dadada. You know? I got suspended. And like I said, I put myself in that position, so I take the good with the bad. I learned from the good. I learned from the bad. Overall it makes me a better person.

Q. When you look back over the arc of this series, you had said you thought you could make a difference in Game 5. Do you think that is where the series turned? And do you think you're going to end up in the future blaming yourself?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I mean, as you know, I blame myself for everything. That's just who I am. I think as a leader that's important. Hey, I'm not afraid to take the blame. I do think that's where the series turned, but it happened. Move on from it.

Like I said, I learned from it, and I'll be better. But I'm not afraid to say that it's my fault. I think it was.

But this ain't the last that you'll see from us.

Q. Similar to what Yan was talking about, how much do you plan or how long do you plan to hold this against yourself? I mean, I'm sure your teammates have told you you win as a team, you lose as a team. Is it something that you'll be able to overcome relatively soon?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I mean, I'm a pretty strong guy so I'll overcome it. I'm already over it. Like, obviously, I'm not over losing. That will sting me for a while, and it will probably sting me until I get back here and make it right. But it will sting, and it's supposed to sting. And if it doesn't sting, you're probably in the wrong business.

So I'm over the fact that what I did because I've learned from that mistake. But I'm not over the loss. I'll probably never be over that. That's just what it is. I hate to lose, so it doesn't go away like that. It will sting for a while, but it's fuel.

Q. How long did it take you from the end of the game to the time you went back out on the floor to congratulate them? Did you think about maybe not going out, or did you just need a minute and then you knew you were going to go back out?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I mean, when I walked in the locker room, I sat down. Obviously they were jumping around, so you wouldn't be able to congratulate anyone at that point anyway. So when I sat down, I knew it wasn't right for me to just sit in there. Those guys, they earned it, and I knew that it was my duty, pretty much, to go back out there and congratulate them on a great series and on a great season and on winning the championship.

Like I said, I hate to lose, but you learn something from everything. I take pride in being a high-character guy, and to just leave the floor like I did, I wouldn't have been able to -- I wouldn't have felt right about myself for a long time if I didn't go back out there and congratulate those guys on what they accomplished. So, once I sat down for a minute, I knew that the right thing to do was to go out there and congratulate them on a great season, great series, and on winning the ring.

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