	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NBA FINALS: WARRIORS VS. RAPTORS

June 6, 2019

Draymond Green

Oakland, California - Practice Day

Q. You guys have been peppered with questions about injuries for a long time now, but Steve Kerr showed some of the heart behind some of these decisions as well. Last night he said when -- he never would have forgiven himself if Klay had played in Game 3 and re-injured himself. So what is the human element here, what is the heart that goes into some of these tough decisions, alongside the evaluations from the training staff?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I think the human elements are important. At the end of the day you want -- as much as you want to win, this is how people feed their family. So as I've said before, when you have injuries, you live those injuries every day. So obviously Steve, as a former player, he understands that. And if Klay was to go out there and play last night and injure his hamstring, he'll be dealing with that for a long time. Even when you hurt like hamstrings and stuff, like, yeah, you may be back healthy in four, six weeks or whatever, but you're still dealing with that.

So just understanding that and taking in consideration a guy's well-being, even more so than necessarily the team's well-being, I think that's important and appreciated as players.

Q. You've probably seen the interaction between Kyle Lowry and a fan. The fan turns out to be a minority owner of the team. Just wondering what your take is on that. And I know that you've gotten your fair share of harassment in visiting arenas. I'm just wondering, do you feel that players are kind of vulnerable, a little bit under attack, and what do you think should be maybe done about it?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I think players are definitely vulnerable. Any time you're in a situation where you can do no right, like in defending yourself, you're vulnerable. So if a fan says whatever they want to you and then you say something back, you're fined. If Kyle was to then hit back, a lot more than a fine would have then happened to Kyle.

In a situation where you're essentially helpless, you're always going to be vulnerable in anything in life. So it's not just on the basketball court. In any situation you can't help yourself, you're vulnerable.

So I think as players we definitely are. But I think you have to give Kyle a lot of credit in the way he handled it. You're playing in the NBA Finals, so your emotions are running high. For him to handle it the way he did says a lot about his character, a lot about him as a man and the way he handles himself. That was great to see, the way he handled that.

And as far as it all goes, the league has really grown in really having a no-nonsense approach when it comes to fan interactions and fan-to-player interactions. They have shown that over the course of the years now. And it goes all the way back to the Malice at the Palace, and even from over the last couple years to fans getting removed from games for getting out of line. The league has really taken a stand on that. It's the NBA Finals, so there are a ton of eyes and attention on this. And I know every decision that I've seen Adam have to make, every tough decision, he's made those decisions.

So we'll see what happens. But you got to give Kyle a lot of credit for the way he handled the situation. He was a true professional in the way he handled that.

Q. Are you curious if there's maybe a double standard when you're talking about a partial owner, in the way this will be handled? And also are you embarrassed at all for the organization that it was one of your owners?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I mean, obviously this organization from the time I've been here and everything I've known about this organization has been a top-notch, upper-echelon organization. So definitely not the type of thing that you want out of somebody out of the ownership group when you're talking about the organization.

As far as the double standard, it's hard to really sit here and say there's a double standard when it comes to an owner if -- to my knowledge, there has been no ruling, no overall ruling yet. So I think before we start talking double standard, we at least need to give the league a fair chance to respond.

I think as much as everybody would want there to be a decision already, I've been a part of situations, a lot of them, where -- not necessarily that, but where you have to talk to the league security and then this guy and that guy and they got to interview everybody. That stuff takes time. So as much as we all want -- and when I say "we all," I mean the world in general -- a response right now, one thing I can say is they do their diligence. So you just have to let the process play out and see what happens. But I'm not going to sit here and say that there's a double standard and not give them a chance to respond and make whatever ruling they're going to make.

Q. Following up on that a little bit, just specifically, because he's a minority owner, LeBron has mentioned on his Instagram that he should be held to a higher standard. You're part of the team. You're part of representation of the team. Would you agree with that? That a minority owner should be held to standards of behavior higher than someone else?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I think you have to be. When you're speaking of players, we are held to a different standard. Coaches are held to -- anybody in the NBA circle, you're held to a different standard. So I think it's no different when you start talking of anybody in any ownership group in the league. You're held to a different standard. You can say it's unfair or not, like whatever your opinion is on it, whether you're one way or the other, that's just the reality of it. We're all held to a different standard, and that's not going to change.

This game continues to grow. That standard continues to grow. A player in 2019 is held to a different standard than a player was in 1999. That's just the reality of where our game is today. We're all held to a different standard.

Q. Considering that every player his whole career, this is the ultimate goal, now you guys are here and Kevin Durant is out, he still has hope of coming back, the disappointment of still being held out, how is he handling all of that?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I think he's just trying to get healthy. I'm not really sure if he's been held out or he is -- I mean, obviously, I think he's still recovering and whatever, but, yeah, I don't really know what's Kevin's day-to-day dealings with the training staff. I try to spend as less time in the training room as I can. So I don't really know what their back and forth is.

Q. They seem to have an answer for you guys. Every time you guys hit a big shot last night, they came up with something. How much getting Klay back in there can you guys make a big defensive adjustment? And Steph said last night we can't count on our offense to win us another championship.
DRAYMOND GREEN: I think having Klay back is important. When you talk about missing Klay, Kevin and Kevon, obviously, everything will point to the offensive end, but they're three of our top five or six defenders, and I think that's equally or even more important than the offensive side of the ball. Like we still scored, what, 109 points last night? That's enough points to win. We have won with 109.

So we got to get stops, and I think adding Klay back to the fold is always going to make a difference, the way Klay pressures the ball, the way he flies around on the defensive end. That makes a big difference.

Q. You guys have said it all along for a month you're better with Kevin, you want him back. From y'all's perspective, what are your expectations if he is to come back in this series after missing so much time?
DRAYMOND GREEN: Well, he'll come back and draw a lot of attention because no coach is going to be like, oh, he's coming off injury, let's see if he's not quite Kevin Durant. Like you're just not going to take that chance. So it will open the floor up more, that's for sure.

But Kevin's a competitor, and as a competitor, when you step out there on the floor, hurt or not or just coming back from an injury or not, you're going to give everything you got. He's way better than a lot of people when he's a hundred percent. So if he's 75 percent, he'll still probably be better than a lot of people. So we'll see if he's able to come back or not.

Q. The last four games that you guys won, Draymond, you were down by 17-3 and you were down by 12 in your last win against the Raptors. Is there something about being down that kind of brings out the best in you personally? I know you guys play with tremendous pace in those four wins, and now you're down 2-1, kind of a "do or die" Game 4 type of deal now.
DRAYMOND GREEN: I think when you're hit with a little adversity, whether it's being down 2-1 or whether it's being down 17 or 12 or whatever it is, your true colors show. I think that's just kind of the makeup of us, that's our DNA. Our backs are against the wall, we continue to fight. We have a lot of firepower. So all of a sudden we continue to fight, and then we go on a run. Some teams, they don't handle that situation well.

You got to give them a lot of credit last night. It kept feeling like that run was right there. Nick Nurse took some key timeouts, and their guys answered every time we started to make a push.

So you got to give them a lot of credit. But I just think our best basketball is usually played when our backs are against the wall, whether that's in a series, whether that's in one particular game.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Draymond.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297