The recent conversations around Draymond Green and therapy have emerged after the Suns’ ejection. Is that a debate that goes beyond a single ejection? Green believes his work in therapy should not be judged by every heated moment on a basketball court. Meanwhile, Stephen A. Smith digs deeper and presents the pattern. He argues that the Warriors forward’s disciplinary history makes those moments part of a larger pattern.
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Their latest exchange has brought that disagreement back into focus.
“I’ve been in therapy, and the second I get some free time, I’m gonna go back to therapy. Because I found it to be every bit as beneficial as you articulated,” Smith said on his show, The Stephen A. Smith Show.
He first made clear that he was not dismissing therapy, then pointed to Green’s record.
“No doubt about it. That’s not the point. The point is that when it comes to the media, when it comes to me, or when it comes to somebody else, respectfully, we’re not the one who has three technical fouls this year in six games this season, your first six games this season. Nor are we the ones that have had 182 for our career. That would be you.”
Smith then widened the argument beyond Draymond Green’s latest ejection.
“If Draymond Green has 37 technical fouls (36 tech as per ESPN stats) in the postseason in his career, since entering the league in 2012-2013, more than twice as many as any other player during that same period of time. He’s had six career suspensions, five imposed by the NBA, one imposed by the Warriors. Two of those suspensions have come in the postseason. And one could easily argue one easily cost the Golden State Warriors a championship in 2016.”
The 2016 NBA Finals became the centrepiece of his argument. The refs suspended Green for Game 5 after his altercation with LeBron James in Game 4 pushed him over the league’s flagrant-foul point threshold. Golden State had taken a 3-1 lead and was returning to Oracle Arena with a chance to close out the series. The Warriors lost Game 5, then dropped Games 6 and 7 as Cleveland completed its comeback.
Andrew Bogut was injured in Game 5, while Andre Iguodala was also compromised, leaving Golden State further depleted as the series swung.
Smith argued that Green’s absence changed the course of the Finals.
“If Draymond Green hadn’t accumulated an abundance of technicals. Remember, it was LeBron James that threw him to the floor, and then he kicked his leg up. He didn’t instigate that any more than he instigated it against the Phoenix Suns on November 2nd. But because of the accumulation of technical fouls prior to that, it ended up being counted against him. He gets suspended for Game 5. Keep in mind, ladies and gentlemen, not to engage in revisionist history, but it’s very, very important to mention it.”
Most importantly, Stephen A. Smith recalled Draymond Green acknowledging the biggest What if of his career.
“We lost. I take that on the chin. I cost us a championship. I’m fine with that… I own up to my mistakes,” Green said in an interview after the heartbreaking loss.
Cut to the 2026-27 season, amid the Warriors’ hot run…
Green fired back on the recent episode of The Draymond Green Show, after Smith questioned his behavior following an ejection against the Phoenix Suns.
The forward objected to the suggestion that another on-court incident meant his work in therapy had not helped. His ejection followed a confrontation with Phoenix’s Dillon Brooks after a hard foul on Khaman Maluach.
“I just want to let Stephen A know, I thank you for speaking on Open Season. Because I’m going to tell you, Stephen A, so the next time you want to go speak on it, I’m going to get into something on the basketball court again. At some point throughout the season, that is not an admission of, ‘Oh, the therapy didn’t work. It’s always ongoing work, by the way, Stephen A. Don’t do that. Maybe I go a little too far sometimes, but don’t intertwine the two.”
Draymond Green’s record gives Smith grounds to question his conduct, but it does not establish whether therapy is helping him. The two have not found common ground: Smith continues to judge his actions on the court, while Green insists that isolated incidents cannot determine his personal progress.