Fan Behind Draymond Green Accounts has "Surreal" Time Meeting the Star
Charlie touched down in the Bay Area on Friday, setting him up to attend his first Warriors game Saturday on the back end of a back-to-back.
Having traveled in from his home in the U.K., Charlie took his seat before the game against the Spurs when a message came from none other than Draymond Green, asking for his email address to send a seat upgrade. Happy to just be inside the Chase Center, the upgrade moved him down from the rafters to near the court.
Then, as he was heading towards the exit following Golden State’s 112-107 loss to the San Antonio Spurs, the man behind the Instagram account @dpoymond and @PlayoffDraymond on Twitter got another message from the 2016-17 Defensive Player of the Year – Green wanted to meet Charlie in the locker room. So, he rushed down to meet his favorite player.
“I get on the court and (Green’s security) takes me to the Warriors’ locker room/waiting room,” Charlie said. “I was waiting in there for about five minutes and then Dray comes out of the locker room and we just talked about the game, talked about the season, we talked about my trip and then he brought out some shoes, signed them and we got our picture taken. It was surreal”
With his 15-minute meeting with Draymond, Charlie’s journey from fan in a town of under 1,000 people in Australia to being alongside one of the best players in the NBA was complete; meeting the three-time NBA Champion was the culmination of years of following basketball and posting Green’s highlights on his fan accounts.
His dedicated support for Golden State through 2021, resulting in his travel to San Francisco to see his favorite team play, was spurred in 2013 by one of the most consequential trades in the franchise’s history.
When Golden State dealt Monta Ellis to the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for Andrew Bogut, the ownership got boos from an unsettled Oracle Arena crowd, but Charlie got the opportunity to watch the NBA for the first time.
“When (Bogut was traded to the Warriors), in Australia that made national news, that was our guy,” Charlie said. “It was a huge trade at the time, so they started broadcasting Warriors games over there, and we started watching them. The Warriors games were on all the time …we just started watching them and falling in love with the team and started knowing more and more players.”
Charlie kept watching, and the Warriors started winning.
A centerpiece of all its title teams, Golden State saw Green emerge as a starter after an injury to David Lee entering the 2014-15 season, and Charlie liked what he saw when the former Michigan State forward took the reins as the team’s “heartbeat”.
There was just one problem – Charlie needed a way to share what he observed in Green’s game with others.
“I’d be watching these games and I’ll see a play where he switched like four times, he (gets) a deflection and he just blocks it out of bounds and I’ll be like ‘did anyone see that?,” Charlie said. “And I was like, ‘man, if only there was a page that recorded those plays’... There’s too many times when I’m watching these games and he’s making all these reads, but no one’s really recording this. I know House of Highlights and Bleacher Report are just going to post LeBron dunks and Tatum scores, but they ain’t posting no defense, so I’ll just do it myself.”
He started a fan page on Instagram for Green in December 2016, and had a medium through which he could share highlights, pictures and stats of Green. Charlie also started to get encouragement from Draymond’s family, as well as from the man himself. “Having (Green’s) support, and his family has contacted me (about) how much they love the page, it keeps me going every day,” Charlie said.
Green has just one Defensive Player of the Year award to his name, but if Charlie had his way – and if the first four letters of his Instagram handle are any indication – he should have three. But, Charlie said, he will settle for two DPOY awards after this season ends.
A staunch supporter of Green’s through and through, Charlie counts Game 1 of the 2017 first round series at home against the Trail Blazers as one of his favorite memories of Green, which makes sense given the monstrous block that season’s eventual DPOY leveled on Noah Vonleh in the midst of a two-on-one.
According to Charlie, however, the most stark vindication of Green’s abilities came in the Warriors’ 2019 NBA Finals run, when Green averaged 13.3 points, 10.1 rebounds and 8.5 assists per postseason contest, adding in 1.5 blocks and steals for each game to round out his performance.
“That whole 2019 playoff run, there was just so much doubt heading into the playoffs, like ‘he’s done’, ‘he’s averaging like seven points, that’s it, trade him.’” Charlie said. “And he comes out in the 2019 playoffs and he almost averages a triple-double the whole playoff run, almost averages a triple-double in the Finals. I know we lost, but individually he took over and I like to see when people react to it. They started to be quiet after that one. Then that offseason he signed a $100 million deal too, so that’s even better.”
He has amassed large followings on his fan pages – Charlie indicates in his Instagram bio he had 95,000 followers on a previous Instagram account – and takes to Twitter to continue sharing content.
Charlie got to watch his first in-person Warrior victory Monday in the team’s 126-95 blowout of Orlando, and will wrap up his San Francisco trip with another Warriors game at the Chase Center tonight against Portland. Tonight’s game is an especially intriguing one, as Charlie has a chance to see Green suit up once again and watch Stephen Curry potentially make history at an arena he called state-of-the-art.
No matter the result of tonight’s contest, Charlie made clear his visit to the Bay Area was an unforgettable one, highlighted, of course, by meeting the man whose achievements he works to share with fellow fans on social media. And the connection between the two looks like it will be ongoing, as indicated by Draymond’s parting message to Charlie.
“(Green) said we will catch up later in the week anyways.”
Make sure to follow Charlie on Instagram @dpoymond and on Twitter @PlayoffDraymond.