Draymond Joins JJ Redick’s Podcast and Talks Post-Championship Thoughts
On Monday night Draymond made an appearance on “The Old Man and the Three” which is a podcast hosted by JJ Redick and Tommy Alter. After talking to each other on their own respective podcasts once before, it was finally time for them to do it in person and with a live audience. They talked about all things sports and even Draymond’s slogan, “The New Media,” which lead perfectly into their surprise guest, Stephen A. Smith.
Having just come off of his fourth championship JJ joked around and asked Draymond about the celebratory parade as he had never experienced one in his 15 seasons in the NBA. He wondered who the MVP of it was and Draymond gave a likely answer in both Klay and Steph as the two had a handful of viral moments during the celebration. Redick then pivoted to the actual Finals MVP and asked Green why Steph was so emotional once the clock expired. Green’s first response was, “I selfishly think it was in protection of me.” Recalling how he struggled in the Finals and how the jarring Boston fanbase was unexpected for him. But then he turned to the media saying, “He (Steph) has been ridiculed these past few years... What his legacy looks like, he doesn’t have a Finals MVP, etc.” That is why it meant so much to him because now the critics have nothing else left to say.
The one thing the Steph haters can point to is Kevin Durant “carrying” him and the Warriors for the two championships in 2017 and 2018. Draymond elaborated on that saying, “None of this stuff works without Kevin, we all knew that, but it took a toll on us to open the door for him and treat him as a brother and then he abruptly leaves.” Even before KD left the Warriors, Steph went to check on him after visiting Japan, but he had already made his decision to leave. Most of the Warriors as a group loved KD but you can’t help but point out how the fans treated him in comparison to the home-grown players which could've pushed him to want to play elsewhere as a true first option. This in Draymond’s eyes mixed with the media hate that Steph received wrapped up together and the result was Steph trash talking at the parade and becoming emotional after the final buzzer sounded.
With that being said, Draymond had two very bold takes later on in the show. The first was that the Warriors will win the next 3 out of 4 NBA championships. A great thing to hear if you're a Warriors fan, not so much for the rest of the league though. With a prime Steph, even healthier Klay coming back, and a ring under their belt you can’t help but feel that the team will be even better next year so Draymond might be right in that department. So Redick and Alter asked Draymond who he thought might be the biggest threat to them in the West next year. His response was Memphis (and all of their trash talk) because of their young core lead by Ja Morant and their chemistry with one another as long as they don’t make any trades. Next, he listed the Clippers as he believes Tyrone Lue, their head coach, is one of the best in the business alongside a healthy Kawhi, Paul George, and newly acquired John Wall. And lastly, he said the Mavs, who have one of the best players in the game right now in Luka Doncic along with a great head coach in Jason Kidd. But at the end of his list he said the reason they won the championship is because they had the best player on the floor at all times, Steph Curry.
The next take he had was that the Warriors would not have beaten the Cavs the second time around without KD. His reasoning behind this was that Curry didn’t know that he could go and get his own bucket whenever they needed him to. But secondly and more importantly in Draymond’s eyes was that Curry is now the strongest player on the team. Green noticed that Curry really took weightlifting more seriously after the 2019 Finals and he added some muscle and gritty strength. This has allowed him in the past few seasons to absorb more contact and get to the rim with ease. He also mentioned that Curry is the Warriors offense and that Tyrone Lue who was the Cavs coach at the time, had said that they were throwing double teams at Steph Curry in order to slow him down. This just so happened to allow KD to get more open looks and vice versa for Steph.
Towards the end of the show when Stephen A. Smith joined the topic moved to the “New Media.” JJ asked Draymond to explain it to the listeners and he started off saying, “JJ is the leader of the New Media if you weren’t aware.” Alluding to the fact that Redick has now become a regular face on ESPN and debate shows such as First Take. This is what it really means from his perspective though, the media especially in basketball should be people who truly understand the game. Green said, “I want to turn on the TV and learn about the game of basketball and the game within the game, but you just don’t see that anymore.” He believes that in our era the media has morphed into an industry that just uses clickbait titles and hot takes to encourage more clicks and views. The New Media is the opposite though, giving honest, truthful, and inciteful thoughts including critic when necessary. He ended his explanation by saying that it can be anyone, including Stephen A. Smith but you just have to be all the qualities that he listed.
The episode lasted about 1 hour and 24 minutes and was a great listen. If there are any NBA fans who are craving some content in the offseason, I would highly recommend that you give it a listen. Here is the full link to the YouTube video if you would like to hear Draymond and JJ talk hoops for an hour:
Draymond Green and JJ Redick LIVE w/ Special Guest Stephen A. Smith
(Photo credit: Chris Graythen / Getty Images)