Draymond: the technicals in Charlotte “bothered me more than being suspended from Game 5 in 2016”

🔥 notes & quotes from Warriors practice in New York!

Here’s Draymond Green from Warriors practice in New York. I have to say, this might be my favorite Draymond Q&A of all-time, although there’s certainly recency bias. The reason why is I’m a pure basketball guy. I’ve been on teams where a teammate popped off with technicals, so getting all the inside team dynamic stuff, you don’t see this every day. It reinforces my view that Draymond is a future Hall-of-Famer.

Side note: my thumb-typing was on point today, so I was able to get as close to the official transcript as you can probably get, asap. The bad news? My old little MacBook couldn’t handle the Kent Bazemore recording prior to this, so I won’t have the video of the first few questions, but I’m sure it’s already going viral as you read this. (You can’t win them all! Steve Kerr and Baze later, as I’m sure you want the content below asap…)

- CHA: “my perspective has changed over the past couple days…mostly I was kinda pissed off just on my feelings of the whole situation, how the first tech went down…anger…I was dead ass wrong…I’m disappointed in myself…it bothered me more than being suspended from Game 5 in 2016…this situation in particular I had complete control over…I let it get away from my team and my teammates…your thoughts are your thoughts on the Game 5 situation…wining an NBA game is not easy…guys in this team have not had as much experience winning…they worked so hard far…I let them down…if you type in Draymond Green before Saturday first clip you’ll see is me talking about the Drummond situation…(now the tech) and that’s where the disappointment lies…one of the most powerful statements in NBA history to that. It’s embarrassing…I’m much better than that…I’m a completely different person at 25 than 30…that should never happen…I can admit my faults and when I’m wrong and I was wrong and I have to do what I have to do to make that up to my teammates. I told the guys I appreciate the support…but that action does not warrant support…I owe them.”

- fans dehumanize the athlete, how difficult to talk about this: “not difficult at all. I could’ve spoke to you guys after the game but I wanted to take the time and let it marinate…answer…would’ve been completely different…part of a human being is having emotions, immediately after the game I’m extremely emotional…I just didn’t want to talk from an emotional state…let my thoughts develop.”

- better leader? “100% think I’ll be better…I know how to control my emotions…as someone who can get 15 techs and never cross that line I think I can control my emotions pretty well.”

- no D.West: “you just have to find it…it’s a completely different situation than I’ve become accustomed to…it’s all a part of growth, you’re not gonna stay the young guy forever.”

- talked to people: “I talked to a lot of people but that’s not where my perspective came from…thoughts within.”

- support: “we discussed what we discussed.”

- losses/centers: “you move forward…played the game without Steph and still had an opportunity to win that game…I’m not sure two weeks ago would be the same result.”

- offensive confidence: “more of me just staying aggressive than staying confident…I’m confident as hell…staying aggressive…completely blow by him and miss a shot, not letting that affect…throwing my hands up is out of frustration…keep that mindset of attacking.”

- what stops you from getting aggressive: “choose those spots, when you play a certain way for so long it’s not easy to turn that mindset on of attacking…it’s just a completely different mindset…it takes a little while for me to kinda get that back…but I feel good of where I’m at.”

- big game NYK? “Anytime you lose a couple games you want to stop the bleeding, so yeah.”

No shootaround tomorrow and, again, Kerr and Baze notes & quotes later in the day.