There has been a lot of noise surrounding the NBA getting soft. Players getting emotional on-court, being on the injury list, getting into it with a heckler, or getting them thrown out, and more warrants the now popular comment – ‘soft’. Take a look at tweets on X regarding different players and the number of comments that outright say it or be subtle; it is way too much. Draymond Green has an answer for every one of them.

He was answering fan questions on his podcast when he received one of these. The fan was apparently quite fond of Dray’s style of playing (the getting physical part) and believes the league needs more of them. Not the kind where players just become friends, taking away the competitiveness. While Green did not comment on the initial part, the 2017 DPOY had an answer ready for the latter section.

He uses the Boston Celtics superstar, Jayson Tatum, to drive his point. “When we play NBA Finals, I didn’t say ‘Hi’ to him the whole time, he didn’t say ‘Hi’ to me the whole finals,” Green reveals. “And then after we hugged, ‘What’s up, bro? I miss you. Dang! It was bothering me not talking to you.’ Yes! It’s my brother. Guess what? Did that change anything with how I went at him?” 

Green delves further into the subject. He emphasizes that just because players are friends does not mean that they can’t get competitive on the court. In fact, it makes them go at them more because, in Draymond’s case, it was his wedding that summer, and he would rather be the champion walking down the aisle than JT sitting out among the guests. So, the whole theory of the lack of competitiveness due to friendship doesn’t make sense.

Draymond Green gets into the crux of the topic

“What changes physicality in the NBA are rules,” Green pointed out. He drew attention earlier to how even in the ’90s, NBA legend Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley were also friends. The pair of them used to golf together before going head-to-head on-court. But because there was no social media then, fans and the public didn’t know what went on in their lives behind the scenes.

Would anyone watching them get into it on the floor believe that they had, just an hour or so before, had a good time together? No, because when players get on the NBA floor, their sole focus is on clinching the victory. Hence, Draymond Green iterates it isn’t their friendship hindering the physicality but the rules on the court. “People gotta stop with that [assuming friendship as hindrance]. That changes nothing, it’s… simply the rules,” the forward concludes.

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