The cross-sport comparison is one of the most fun traditions in sports talk. It’s how we make sense of greatness, how we build bridges between worlds. Michael Jordan is the “Wayne Gretzky of basketball.” Tom Brady is the “Michael Jordan of football.” It’s a mostly harmless exercise. But every now and then, a comparison comes along that is so brutally honest, so perfectly on the nose, that it cuts through all the noise. And this week, we got two of them, courtesy of a hilarious TikTok reel from the New Orleans Saints.

The premise was simple: Saints players were asked to name their NBA player comparison. When it was two-time Super Bowl champion Von Miller’s turn, he didn’t hesitate. Asked who he plays like, he said, “Durant for the s— show.” It was a hilarious admission aimed at Kevin Durant, likely a commentary on KD’s sometimes chaotic, iso-heavy style of play that can look like brilliant one moment and, well, a “s— show” the next.

But the moment that stole the show came from veteran defensive end Cam Jordan. Asked for his NBA comparison, he didn’t hesitate: “Draymond Green, bro — we go overly aggressive at all times.” He even posted the clip on his Instagram story, tagging Draymond with, “@money23green I choose you.” It was a perfect nod to everything Green stands for. And Draymond? He reposted it with string laughing emojis and a simple confirmation: “overly aggressive at all times.” A rare, self-aware flex from one of the league’s most polarizing stars.

And in a recent, incredibly candid interview on “The Pivot” podcast, Green opened up about just how complicated that “overly aggressive” persona really is. He knows it’s what has made him a four-time champion and a Defensive Player of the Year. It’s also what has led to six suspensions and a reputation as one of the league’s most volatile players. “On the court, I am a menace,” Green admitted.

But he also pushed back against the narrative that his on-court persona is who he is as a man. “That’s the problem I have with it,” he said. “Don’t try to take what I’m doing… what I do to compete, and try to dumb me down to just that… They try to put the ‘angry Black man’ tag on you, like you walk out in the world, you ain’t got good sense. I’m far from him.”

Draymond Green’s view of himself is evolving — shaped by public mistakes and private reflection. During a heated playoff run against the Rockets, he clashed with close friend Fred VanVleet. “I said some choice words that, as soon as I said them, I knew,” he admitted. “I said, ‘I’m sorry. I was wrong.’”

This is still the same fiery competitor — the one who, per Sports Illustrated, got a warning from the league for being “too aggressive” after the Jimmy Butler trade. But it’s also someone learning to separate the chaos of the court from the person off it. As he shared on a recent podcast, that journey is taking him somewhere new — and surprisingly introspective.

The loudest man in the room is finally listening — A new book is shaping a new Draymond Green

That journey of self-discovery is about to be put on paper. In that same revealing conversation on “The Pivot”, Draymond announced that he is writing a book, a process he described as incredibly therapeutic. “I don’t even know if I’m supposed to say this, but I’m writing a book,” he said. “And that process is so therapeutic for me, because it’s actually where I worked my way through, like, ‘Oh, s— , it is two different people.'”

Those two different people—the on-court “menace” and the off-court family man—have been at war for years, and it has taken a toll. He confessed that the constant public scrutiny and criticism have deeply affected his family. “It started affecting my mom,” he said. “She don’t watch games anymore. She checks the box score. It brings her anxiety at this point in my career.”

He spoke about how his wife, Hazel Renee, has had to deal with horrific online rough up. “People attacking my wife because I got into it with somebody on the court,” he recalled. “People telling her, ‘I know you’re getting beat at home.’ All this stuff. I saw the weight that it was putting on her.”

The breaking point, he admitted, was when it started to affect his children. “Now my kids are going to school. My kids coming home like, ‘Daddy, they said you did this.’ And I’m like, damn,” he confessed. “When I realized that, damn, I’m causing them s— it was crushing me…That was another reason I wanted to be done.”

This newfound self-awareness has clearly reframed his perspective on some of the most infamous moments of his career, most notably the 2022 practice altercation with his former teammate, Jordan Poole. While he once defended his actions, he now looks back on it with a deep sense of regret. “For that five seconds, I forgot where I was at. Because I immediately went to what I know. But what you know don’t really work here,” he explained. “But, it’s them lessons like that ultimately make me who I am to this day because, man, I f— that up.”

This is the new Draymond Green. Still overly aggressive at all times on the court — and unapologetic about it. But off it, he’s finally confronting what that aggression has cost him. A father, a husband, a veteran trying to protect his peace while figuring himself out. The book might be compelling. But the man behind it? Even more so.