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NBA FINALS: WARRIORS VS. RAPTORS

June 12, 2019

Draymond Green

Oakland, California - Practice Day

Q. Final home game, can you encapsulate what this place has meant to you?
DRAYMOND GREEN: It's a special place. I've been here now for seven years, a ton of great moments, a ton of great memories. It's always a bitter sweet thing when talking about that. Obviously it's the end of something special but I think also the start of something that will be even more special. But for these fans that have endured plenty of tough seasons to possibly close this thing out to win a NBA Finals in the last season here, to win the last game here to send us to a Game 7 with a chance to complete the three-peat is special.

Q. What makes Kawhi such a beast to deal with?
DRAYMOND GREEN: He's a good player.

Q. Specifically how would you compare him to dealing with peak LeBron?
DRAYMOND GREEN: He's a great player. LeBron is obviously one of the greatest place we have ever seen. Different players though.

Q. How so?
DRAYMOND GREEN: They got two different names. They're like different people. Yeah, they're just different. They're not the same person.

Q. How do you think Marc Gasol has influenced The Finals and if you need to be more focused on him?
DRAYMOND GREEN: He's been playing great. We've done a good job of -- some games we're taking him out of the game and the other game he's gotten hoops. And that's just the reason he's been the player he's been for so many years in this league. We know what he's capable of, but you just got to do the best we can to try to make things tough on him.

Q. You're one tech away from a suspension. How aware of that do you have to be, how much do you have to remind yourself of that and how tough is that to do in the moment?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I'm very aware. It's not that tough. Just play the game.

Q. With what happened to Kevin Durant with the Toronto crowd the last game, do you see that as similar to what you've been kind of saying about the group mentality of owners and how they treat players?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I don't know what they were thinking so I can't really speak on what their mentality was. It was a rough moment.

Q. How much of these remaining two games are let's win this for KD, how much does that come into play?
DRAYMOND GREEN: That definitely comes into play. That's a guy who we all have seen his love for the game of basketball. For him to get back out there, as crazy as it sounds, I think he played for 11 minutes, I think those 11 minutes were enough to give us the spark that we needed. So now we want to continue to try to build on that and do everything that we can to finish the series the right way.

Q. Coach Lindsay Gottlieb over at Cal just was named to the coaching staff at Cleveland. We're starting to see more women breaking into the coaching ranks in the NBA. Have you ever been coached by a woman and how important is it for the league to hire more women and get them involved in the coaching ranks?
DRAYMOND GREEN: Yeah, I don't think I've ever been coached by a woman. I don't think so. Maybe when I was a kid. I can't remember. Yeah, I'm not sure. Possibly in elementary school. But I really don't, I can't quite recall if I did or didn't. It's possible though. I don't know. I'll have to check that.

Q. The fact that more women are being hired in roles like that, how do you feel about that and do you think it's important for the NBA to kind of start breaking that barrier that they already have?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I think the barrier's been broken at this point. Becky Hammon has been in the league. There are a few more. So I think that barrier has been broken.

Q. You spoke on it a little bit earlier but just obviously players don't need extra motivation in The Finals but given it is the last dance at Oracle is there a little something extra that y'all bring or do you talk about that with this building?
DRAYMOND GREEN: No. You've got to go win the game. Trying to take extra emotion or whatever it is into the game ain't going to help you win it. There's enough motivation to get to a Game 7 and try and win another championship.

Q. Do you guys win the other night if DeMarcus doesn't give you the strong minutes that he did after KD went down?
DRAYMOND GREEN: Probably not. Just because there are so many -- everybody is down, sad, mad, frustrated, disappointed, there's just so much emotion going on at that moment, that game could have went either way. DeMarcus came off the bench, he stepped up big for us and it helped us keep the momentum or gain the momentum back.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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