Let me ask you something: when we talk about NBA villains, who pops into your head? For most neutrals today, it’s Draymond Green, no question. But what if I tell you there was a guy before him, someone who actually admitted to slapping players in the face during games and got away with it? That’s not a joke. We’re talking about former Hawks All-Star Jeff Teague. People always remember Jeff as the cool, calm point guard from that great Atlanta team that won 60 games. However, Gillie Da King and Wallo’s “Million Dollaz Worth of Game” podcast offered a surprising twist. A simple chat about old NBA stories turned into a deeply personal exchange of confessions.

“I used to slap people out there. I was bugging,” Teague said, laughing while the hosts lost it. Wallo couldn’t believe it, and when he asked, “Who you slap, man?”….Jeff didn’t hesitate. “Belly retired this year. Shoutout to Belly,” Teague began, referring to Nemanja Bjelica. “I slapped him in the game. I just slapped him. My fault, Belly. That was some whole s*** right there.” The studio burst into laughter, but Teague kept going. “I got a turnover, and I just got mad. He was the closest n****, and I just slapped him.” No tech. No foul. Not even a whistle. And the NBA didn’t even blink. “He was so mad,” Teague recalled. “He told me he would kill me.”

If you think it stopped there, it didn’t. They later became teammates in Minnesota, and Bjelica didn’t forget. “As soon as I walked into the locker room, he was like, ‘Hey, I was going to f*** you up, brother. I was going to kill your whole family. Don’t do that again.’” Jeff just looked at him and said, “Shut the f*** up.” The two laughed it off and ended up cool, but that moment showed just how wild things could get back then. “I had an anger problem,” Teague admitted. “On the court, you say something and I’m like, ‘F*** it,’ and then I’d just do something crazy.”

And that’s the wild part! Teague didn’t get labeled anything close to a villain. He even joked on the podcast, “I ain’t get no techs or fines though,” before admitting, “Nah, I got hella techs.” But no one questioned his character or painted him as dangerous. The difference in how Teague’s antics were brushed off and how Draymond’s are blown up shows just how much the NBA world has changed. Now, it’s not just about what you do…..it’s about how the world sees you when you do it.

“I’m Not a Villain”: Draymond Green pushes back on NBA image

Fast forward to today, and Draymond Green is in a firestorm of his own. After picking up his fifth technical foul in the playoffs during his last game against Minnesota, Green is walking a tightrope. One more wrong move and he’s out for a game. This time, he struck Naz Reid in the head after a dead-ball whistle, and boom, another tech.

But Draymond says he’s tired of the label. “Looked like the angry Black man,” he told reporters in a passionate locker room speech. “I’m not an angry Black man. I’m a very successful, educated Black man with a great family, and I’m great at basketball.” He went on to say there’s an “agenda” trying to paint him in a certain light, and he’s “sick of it.”

It got even worse when a fan shouted a racial slur at him during the game. Security confirmed it, and the fan was removed, but the emotional toll stayed. “That kind of stuff just gets brushed under the rug,” Green said. How can anyone stay composed with that kind of hate in the air?

His teammates and coaches know how fragile the situation is. Jimmy Butler backed him, saying, “Every time he does something, it’s always a review and ends up being something.” Warriors coach Steve Kerr added, “I just didn’t want him to get another technical, so I took him out.” That’s where we are….taking star players off the floor to protect them from refs.

So while Draymond gets called a villain, Jeff Teague was slapping dudes in the face and walking back to the bench like nothing happened. “I didn’t even get a tech,” Teague said, still surprised. Maybe the game has changed, or maybe the spotlight just shines brighter now. Either way, it’s clear, before Draymond, Jeff was already pushing foul play to a whole other level.