Colin Cowherd Podcast - Draymond Green on Celtics Matchup, Steph Legacy, KD Exit, Defending Luka

Get started now. Sign up promo code Colin so they know we and I sent you. The Colin Coward Podcast presented by the Fan Duel Sports Book. Hi everybody, and welcome in to the Tuesday Morning Podcast. The great soon to be Hall of Famer Draymond Green will be joining us. My first ever interview with Draymond Green, his first ever interview interviewing me. So let's be honest about this a big day for both of us. I want to talk

about a former teammate of Draymond Green, Kevin Durant. And I'm sure it isn't lost on any of you that these finals are Kevin Durant's former team that he bailed on the Warriors against Kyrie Irving's former team he wanted out of the Celtics burn I think Kd's a cautionary tale of something that men seek and often to their peril, and that is power. Bill Belichick had so much power in New England. I was told that in January, starting about six years ago, Belichick would call off the scouting

department and tell them I'll take the draft from here. Well, what followed was four or five straight egregiously bad drafts. Belichick acknowledged that he was going to give more sets of eyes power in the draft room in twenty twenty one, and they had their best draft in five or six years. This year, again, Belichick took it over and the Patriots had what we can call it best an odd draft. Robert Kraft acknowledged this not long ago, saying, hey, we

had a really great twenty twenty one draft. It made up for the previous four drafts. This happens in movies. Martin Scorsese is a legendary director, but he's become so all powerful that when he made The Irishman, it was three and a half hours long. I really liked the movie, but I didn't love the movie because when a movie's too long to watch even on a plane. Probably should

cut out forty minutes. Garth Brooks had this in the nineties when he was not only a sensation, he was the most powerful person arguably in music, not just country music. And when he came up with the idea to create a new character called Chris Gaines, a moody pop star, and make a movie about him, he had so much power. Nobody raised their hand in the room and went, Garth, this is a terrible idea. Of course it was. It flopped,

the movie was never made. And I think you see this time and time again that men often seek power or become so successful people don't challenge them. And what you get anytime you're making decisions in an echo chamber is a higher percentage of poor decisions. And this is really Kevin Durant. Kevin Durant, nobody checked him when he said, I want to leave the best coach I've ever had, the best culture I've ever had, the best teammate Steph

Curry I've ever had. Nobody checked him. His agent, Rich Kleman, didn't check him. His shoe company apparently didn't push back. The feeling was, hey, Kevin Durant, He's going to take a big leap here, leave all that greatness and go to the largely dysfunctional Brooklyn Nets with overwhelmingly dysfunctional Kyrie Irving. Nobody raised their hand and went, WHOA, No, you're not going to do that. We're not gonna let you do that.

Whether it's Belichick drafting, Martin Scorsese moviemaking, Garth Brooks creating a fictional character, power corrupts. And can you imagine I've used this example before. If Patrick Mahomes woke up tomorrow morning and said, I'm going to go play for the Jets because my best friend's going to go play for him, the NFL media would claber him, his agent would his

shoe company. But there's very a few move the needles stars in the NBA, maybe four, and so media wants access to not only that player but his agent and his shoe company. And you lose it by being critical. See, the NFL doesn't have that as good as Josh Allen is or Lamar Jackson is, or Justin Herbert's or Patrick Mahomes is. I mean, Tom Brady could retire tomorrow. It's not going to hurt the ratings at all. Aaron Rodgers could leave tomorrow, it's not going to hurt the ratings.

But if Durant leaves, and Staff leaves and a handful of other people leave, they have so much power in the NBA, people cower and are unwilling to push back. Kevin Durant had so much power that nobody said to him, Kevin, not only is this going to be a huge mistake, but the contract you're signing with Brooklyn you won't be able to get out of. And so here sits Kevin Durant today, another first round exit, two and three years humiliated watching Steph Curry and the Warriors heavily favored against

the Celtics. And I can assure you he's rooting for the Celtics. And I can assure you Kyrie Irving is rooting for the Warriors. So the two guys that now play together are rooting against each other's interests. Surround yourself with people not necessarily negative people, honest people, people who are authentic, people that can say, hey, I want you to think about this, sleep on it. I don't know if that's a great decision for your career. Belichick, Garth

Brooks Martin Scorsese, Kevin Durant. Doesn't matter how brilliant you are, you need people willing to be honest with you. A three time champ, a four time All Star, four time All Defensive First Team Defensive Player of the Year. About five years ago, the Draymond Green Shows also the best sports podcast in the world, and it happens to be on the volume, right I said it. I'm good with that. So let's start. When you had a practice today, so you're just sitting around waiting for the winner. I like

you thought Boston's Boston's gonna win this game. I was shocked. Shot. I'm not shocked much, dram I've been doing this twenty five years. Miami winning in Boston Friday. I can't get my brain. What were you watched it? What the hell happened? I thought there was no chance. Obviously, Jimmy Butler had one of those Jimmy Butler type games that we all now know that he's capable of, like, and we didn't just figure that out with that game. We've been knew

Jimmy was capable of that. However, those two games prior to that he were playing terrible, and regardless of whether it was the injuries or whatnot. I I'm going to give Jimmy Butler his credit. I definitely think the injury has something to do with those games before. But even as say that, I didn't see a forty nine point game. And the reality is if he didn't give forty nine, they didn't have a chance to win it. He had

thirty five last night. No chance that winning. But I mean I was I was extremely shocked that they were able to go in without Tyler hero and go into Boston and win Game six. I thought there was no chance. So you were presuming And despite what Udonis Haslem a guy I love said, I think most of the league, most players in the league looked at it like, listen, man, you got Jimmy Butler's got knee inflammation, Tyler's out. Bam

is a great defensive player. He can't be your number two score, especially with Williams, who's a really effective defensive player on him. So you did a practice today, What where do you are you already attacking them? Was today's practice more about inserting Peyton otto iggy back into your game or was it looking at the Celtics and creating a game plan today for us today, it was just more about ourselves, like we got up and down, we watched we watched some clips on our offense, but we

didn't necessarily watch much or anything on the Celtics. We'll start doing that prep tomorrow. But after the weekend, you know, having a couple of days off and then getting you know, getting some individual workouts in, we just wanted to get in practice and kind of have a blowout session. So we played three six minute quarters just to get up and down the court and you know, start working on getting your rhythm back after a few days off, a couple of days off on the weekend, and so our

focus today was in them at all. Now. I know our coaching staff has been watching them all weekend and kind of preparing for this, but our focus today was simply just us incorporating offensive plays that we know we're gonna want to use against their against their switching defense. You know, they have a ton of lengths. So we just really wanted to incorporate a bunch of stuff on our offense and the things that we're going to do, and more so focused on ourselves today rather than anything

on the Boston Celtics. One of the things that I kind of find fascinating about the Warriors culture is that old players, young players buy in, and veteran players don't wear each other out. I mean, you go Shaq, Kobe, you can go to the Heatles. It's hard, a lot of focus, a lot of media, and you guys just don't wear each other out. I mean that's historically, that's rare. And then you get young players to buy in and you're coached hard. I mean, Kerr, I know Steve, I

covered Steve. Steve doesn't coach light. So as I watch Kevon Looney and I'm like, like, I didn't know he was that good of a rebounder, Like I watch his development and I'm like, I mean, is that just hard coaching? Because Draymond, he is a significantly better player today than a year ago. That's what it feels like to me. Did you see the growth? Did you predict the growth? I've one seen the growth. I can't say I predicted this growth because the reality is, if you go back,

it's funny. I was. I was showing a couple of friends of mine just a few days ago. I was showing them Cavin Luni's highlight clips from high school because they were like, man, Loune's playing so much better and he's finishing now. And I was telling and I was telling them, I said, and they were just asking questions about Lune and I was telling them. I said, you know what's crazy, it's the player that he is today

and that he's become. I have such large, a large amount of appreciation for him because he's what he's done in these playoffs and really all year, but especially these playoffs. Everybody's watching. We know what he's done and what he's done. It's totally reinventing himself from the player that he was coming out of high school. Now I show I ended

up showing the high school clips. He's coming down off the drip, but pull up three, you know, fake this way, go back that way, floaters like he's doing all of that. And when Cabin Looney was coming out of high school, people were comparing him to Kevin Durant. Now, I always get mad when people just compare tall, skinny guys to Kevin Durant, because that's what everyone wants to do. They look at a physique, they say, oh man, that guy's

tall and skinny. He can handle the ball boom. That's Kevin Durant, and I think it is the absolute worst thing that people can do in basketball. Like you just don't you don't you don't just compare people to Kevin Durant because the stature, because the reality is it's Kevin Durant. It's arguably the most talented and skilled basketball player that

we've ever seen in NBA history. We have not seen someone seventh beat dribbles the ball like a point guard, shoots the ball like a two guard, post up like a three four man, can protect the rim like a five. We've never seen this before. It's like if you if you went into a lab and they said, hey, you can create a player. You're going to create us. I used to do this on the way, so I can speak from experience. You're going to create a player that's

Kevin Durant. You're gonna go create a guy that's six ten to seven feet somewhere and they're contribble, shoot pass. That's what you're going to create on NBA two K. I used to do it as a kid. It was Kevin Durant, and people used to always comparing to Kevin Durant. So I was showing them the player that he was before and who he has become. And I ain't just have an appreciation for him and the growth that he's had. You're talking to guy who came in and the moment

he stepped foot in the NBA. He had two hip surgeonies, not one, not a risk surgery, not you know, he messed his shoulder up. He had two hip surgeonies. Now, hip surgeries are brutal. Number one, for those that don't know all of your nerves, could they All of that stuff is forming at your whether it's coming from the bottom of your body, or your lower body or your

upper body, they're all forming at your hips. So just right there alone with the nerves and all of the things that you have, one of your hips as brutal. And so I can't say I expected this and the level that he's playing that. But what I can say is he is by far the most professional guy that I have ever been around in my career. From day one of him walking in here, he has worked like a veteran, not late for anything. Puts in all the extra work, whether it's in the weight room, whether it's

on the court. He has done that since day one. And in my life I've seen hard work always fail. So to say that I thought he'd be at this level, I'd be totally lying to you. But to say that I'm surprised that he's playing at this level, I'm not because I've watched him put the work in over and over and over again, and yet have seen him catch tough breaks, and it's finally great to see the breaks are falling his way because he's worked is assa. The

playoffs are here. You can make every game feel like Game seven on FanDuel sports Book, an official partner of the NBA. Fanduels hooking you up free bets through the playoffs. Three bets doesn't matter if you're a new customer or already have an account. Be sure to check out the app exclusive weekly same game parlay promos. FanDuel's got so many ways to play. Best of all, when you win, you get paid faster than a fast break. If you're new to FanDuel, download the vandel sports Book app, sign

up with a promo code column. If you already have an account, you're all set to get in on the action. Either way, you'll get an assist from FanDuel when you've got a same game parlay during the playoffs. Vandel sports Book an official partner of the NBA twenty one plus in present in Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, and Louisiana. Permitted parish is only Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Virginia

or West Virginia. First online real money You're only refund issued as non withdrawal psyche credit that expires in fourteen days. Restrictions supply sea terms at sportsbook dot fandel dot com.

Gambling problem one hundred, next step or text next step to five three three four two Arizona oneted eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org, slash chat Connecticut one hundred gambler or visit Fandel dot com slash RG in Colorado, Indiana, Jersey, In Virginia one eight seven seven seven seven zero stop in Louisiana one one hundred two seven oh seven and one one seven for confidential health in Michigan one eight seven seven h Ope n Y or text h Ope n

Y f for six seven three six nine in New York, Tennessee redline one hundred eight eight nine nine seven eight nine Tennessee visits one eight hundred gamble dot in West Virginia. You know it's um. And I said this when when Kadi left, I said, I think he's making a huge mistake. I said, you know how lucky you are to have Hall of Fame teammate, to Hall of Fame culture and people that are actively rooting for you. I just got den reading three rings on the Kobe Shack, Phil Jackson, Lakers,

Draymond It was just a shit show man. It is brutal. I mean, you read it and it's like, this is brutal when you and you may be sensitive to talk about this, but when you watch Katie now and he's got some teammates that aren't always there for him, and I think, oh, bro, boy, you left, you left Rodeo drive a basketball man. This is the this is the highest end, this is the culture, the brains. Do you look at him now and what do you see and what do you think? Or do you not care? I care,

one hundred percent care because that's my brother. And I always want to see him do well, whether that's here, whether that's in Brooklyn, whether he decides he wants to go play for Barcelona next year in euro League. I always want to see him do well because that bond, that relationship, it's always going to go much further than I can play basketball, and that he can play basketball. So I always want to see him do it, do well.

So I do care. As far as caring if he's on our team or not, I can't care because that's not that's not up to me. That's not up to me from the team standpoint, that's not up to me from Kevin standpoint. What I will say is when when he decided that he was going to leave, I thought it was a mistake, not that it was not, and not for the reason that everyone else thinks it's a mistake.

By the way, I thought it was a mistake because I know Kevin and what Kevin likes to do, and Kevin in his life the number one thing in Kevin's life, and that's not the case for most people, including NBA guys. By the way, like basketballall is the most important thing to me in my life. I'm I'm not going to sit here and lie to you and act like it is. It's not the most important thing in my life. It is extremely important, but it's not the most important thing

in my life. Basketball is one hundred percent the most important thing in Kevin's life. It is the thing that he cares about himself more than anything in the world. And when Kevin was here, the reason I thought Kevin was making a mistake because I felt like, when Kevin was here, what he was allowed to do was to simply just go play basketball, which is what Kevin loves to do. And so it wasn't that he was going to play with Kyrie. It wasn't that, you know, everyone's like, oh,

Kyrie isn't there. It wasn't any of that, or it wasn't like, oh man, you're winning championships. It was more so for me from a life standpoint, because again, I care about the person. I don't give a damn about the basketball player. He's a great basketball player, but I care about the person, and I just knew what makes him happy in his life is being able to to simply go play basketball. And so that's where the mistake

was made for me. It's not that he wasn't going to go win, because again it's it's not proven that they're still not going to win. It takes time to build these things up, and I know everyone thinks, oh man, you put this team together and you're supposed to win in one or two years, and the reality is we all hope that it goes that way. But I mean, look at this Boston Celtics team. For every year for the last four years, they've said Jaylen Brown and Jason

can't play together, and they figured it out. It takes time to build these things, and so I don't look at the whole their whole thing with the Brooklyn nets and say that's a failure, Like I don't know if that's a failure and that's not written, but whether that fails or succeeds, that wasn't the mistake to me. The mistake for me was simply from a life standpoint of what makes you happy. What makes you happy? I know you, you're my brother. What makes you happy is you're simply

going to play basketball. And so that's where the mistake was made to me. Wasn't about winning championships or anything like that. When you see I said this today on the show, I said, I'm not really an awards guy, like I kind of believe in broadcasting. I know the guys or the women that are good, and I know the ones that are average, and awards isn't going to change my mind, and to me, Steph is one of

the greatest players I've ever seen. One of the reasons I hold him in such high regard is that he doesn't care if he's Finals MVP. It doesn't appear to me. I said, there's a lot of guys in this league that care about that. And I said, but that's why Kevin Durrant worked, That's why everybody works. That's why he gets hurt. He'll, you know, Jordan Pool starts, he can come off the bench. I'm like, that's the essence of Steph.

It's not a weakness. When you hear opinion shows and people in my space say that he needs an MVP in the finals to validate it, does is it ridiculous? Do you not hear it? What do you make of that? What I make of it, calling is that people need shiny objects for themselves to be able to have. They need those shiny objects for them to be able to analyze what's going on. They can't. They can't see what you just said, which is Steph. Steph could have definitely

have finals MVPs because Steph has the ball like Steph. Now, Steph is coming down the court and he's calling sets and he's like, oh, we gotta mismatch with Kevin Durant. We're going to get Kevin Durant the ball every single time he can hijack the game, and no one's gonna say a word. If Steph Curry comes down and he calls for a pick and roll, everybody, nobody's going to say a word, including Kevin Durant. By the way, nobody's going to say anything. That's not who he is, that's

not what he does. And so when you watch a game and Kevin Durant was absolutely incredible in those finals runs, as you know you watched it, we all watched it. Kevin Durant was absolutely insane. Steph Curry got double team probably seven times the amount that Katie did in a given series. So when you watch those games and you say his numbers could be a little down, he's facing a double team. And by the way, this isn't a

double team from the Orlando Magic. This is a double team from a team that's playing in the finals, which we know if you're in the finals, you're going to have a good defense. These are real double teams. This ain't some team that's starting together a game playing the night before and then rolling their players out there that can't play half dead. This isn't that. This is elite teams throwing elite defenders at guys. And yet the guy

who was still averages. I'm not sure what his finals averages, but I'd be willing to bet my bottom dollars nor from twenty three points. And so the games and the impact that he has on the game. If you don't understand basketball and thoroughly understand, not understand a statue, if you don't understand basketball, which most people don't in your space, then yeah, you're going to come out and you're gonna say he needs to validate that by finals MVP, because

that's all you can see. You didn't go and you say, oh man, this guy won finals MVP. That must be the guy who's doing X, Y and Z. But if you can analyze the game and see that's where that's when I say new media, that's where I feel like this space is going a run. No one analyzes the game anymore. That's a law skill. No one does that. And if you have the potential or if you're capable of analyzing a game, then under no circumstances are you gonna say Steph Curry need the Finals MVP to validate

who he is now? And saying all of that. When I look at Steph Curry, it's he is not made up of exactly what you said. He doesn't need those things to feel like Steph Curry. But as you do know, we live in a social media day and age where you see everything, you hear everything, and it's twenty four seven, you open your phone up, you see it. So now with Steph, does he feel like he needs to win

the Finals MVP? It's not something he's ever said, but I would go out on the limits say I one hundred percent think he does not that he feels like that from the inside, but I feel like he's been made to feel that way. Oh man, he doesn't have this, he doesn't have that. This person not validating him, that person not validated. And ultimately it doesn't bring out the worst of him because he doesn't hijack games, go start trying to do that, and so it doesn't bring out

the worst. But he's a competitor. He's an extreme competitor. You don't become that great if you're not. And so I think the competitor in him may feel like, yes, I definitely need to do that because X Y and Z all said that and I want to prove them wrong. Not necessarily that I need this Finals MVP to validate myself to you know who you know who he knows

who he is. And so I think the pressure of the media, all the noise around will one hundred percent make you feel that way if you have a competitive spirit in you, which I know heat up. Yeah, you know, um as I watched the Maverick series and I know that's in the rear view mirror. But much like the Celtics, you know, they conference final experience, which you have a ton of and staff and Clay and cur the Celtics

have a little. The Mavericks didn't have any when you were And I had said before the series, I said, Golden State is gonna win this, and they're gonna win it because they're gonna make Luca less efficient. They're gonna throw Andrew at him, and they're gonna throw a dre maybe Kuminga. And I said, you're not gonna shoot forty eight percent. He's gonna shoot like forty two percent, and that'll just be enough. And also because you're older players.

You guys can do four different defensive alignments on four trips down the floor. A lot of teams can't do that. So you guys are it's like a Belichick defense. You guys are throwing shit at guys every time down the court. And that's just a lot as the game's pace is

very fast. But did you feel at any point, all you veterans around Luca, did you sense the frustration the body language like the kid, the kid is learning American conference finals level, sort of like as I watched it, I watched this body language and I was like, Oh, this is conference finals basketball, this is less in time, this is That's what it felt like to me as a consumer. Absolutely. Now what I will say is this, I'll never forget this because I remember how upset people

got when he said it. But I remember when Luca first came into the league and he made a statement where he said it was easier, it's easier to score in the NBA than it was for him in Europe. I remember he made that statement. He's proven actually that that is true with how he's played since he made that statement. But I also remember how upset everyone got when he made that statement. Like, who does this guy think he is and blah blah blah, and this is

the NBA. And when he said it, I immediately was like, that makes sense. I know what you mean. I mean, if you I've had the opportunity in the honor of competing in two Olympics and if you ever played FEBA basketball. I mean, those guys are still playing Rudy Gobert in the center, his size, that moves like him together and they just can sit in the paint and you can't get there, you can't into the rim. They got two big logs just standing there. That is the that's that's

the feeble way of basketball. We saw some of that this summer when we when we obviously we went on to win the gold medal. I said all of that to say, for me personally, I have to rebody language, like that's one of my roles that that's how I can feed off of, um, you know, a guy's frustration, or that's how I can get into someone's head or you know, whatever I need to do on my end

to help my team. I have to understand and pay attention to body language because I have to be able to go back to Andrew Wiggins say, Wiggs, you know there was one game, I think it was Game two, and Wiggs we had a couple of possessions and Wigs that you know, they were up in game two and and then we made that run there in the second quarter, and he had a couple turnovers in the row, and he came down and drove and Wiggs was bumping him, pumping him, and Wiggs had his arms up, and then

Luca faded back and he was looking for the past. There's no pass there. He turned back to shoot it, and Wiggs reached down and followed him, and I told Wiggs, I said, he had two turnovers in the row, a misshot before that misshot, then two turnovers in the row, and now this possession. You were about to break him if he missed that shot or turn that ball over, you were about to break him. You just bailed him out with that file. Now he's about to go get

two free throws. You have to break that rhythm up again because those two free throws are going to help him find this rhythm. And do you totally break a player like Luca Donches. No, you never break a guy like that, but you could one hundred percent since the frustration. Now, Harris,

who you break. If you can send my break him, If you can send my break him, you break all the other guys because they don't know where to turn, if they can't turn and look at him and see him with his provado, him with his confidence coming down, knowing these guys can't stop me. But I don't even want the shot right now. I want a shot for jayleb Brunson. So let me get a shot for Jay leb Brunson. That's who all those guys look too, for their confidence and so not necessarily that you're going to

break him and take him out of the game. You're never gonna do that. But if you can shake him a little bit, you really shake the rest of the guys. And so we definitely saw the frustration, and obviously against him, we knew you're not going to lock him down. There's a lot like James Harden. We knew, hey, man, this guy may come out, he may have a great first quarter, he may come out, he may have a great second quarter.

But over the course of forty eight minutes, if we can just keep throwing bodies at him and wear him down by the time we get to the fourth quarter, those legs are going to be gone. And what we ended up seeing is, over the case of forty eight minutes, if you just continue to bodies at him, defend without following, trying not to give up easy things. Then a couple of times in that series he got to that third quarter and he was a little gas And that's kind of what you want to do against a guy like

that over the course of forty eight minutes. You want to wear him down. And I think we were able to do a good job with that, in large part due to Andrew's constant ball pressure, picking him up ninety four feet away from the basket each time he brought the ball up, and you can really, really really sense the frustration throughout the series. Everybody's got influences quarterbacks, talk show hosts. I've never heard you mention this, and I apologize.

If you have your style of play and where you grew up, who is your primary influence my style of playing where I grew up. My primary influence for me was my uncle, my uncle Benny. He taught me the game of basketball, and he did it in a way. It's funny because a couple of years ago we were all sitting together my family, and he said, man, I really feel good about the things that I taught y'all. He said. The one thing I never taught y'all is one on one scoring. He said, I never taught y'all that.

But everything else I know for certain I taught y'all, But I never taught y'all one on one scoring. He said. If there's one regret I have when I look back, is that I should have taught a little bit more of that. Not that I should have taught less of anything else, but I should have taught y'all a little bit more of just one on one scoring and attacking. I said all of that to say, that is the person who taught me basketball. That's the person who taught

me helps out of defense. That is the person who taught me defensive principles, standing between your man and the ball, and like all the cliche things that you're taught on the defensive end that everyone moves on and in the course of their careers and then tend to ignore those same principles that he taught me, they are the same principles that are used today. Now, you know, in elementary school, they maybe you don't let someone drive baseline and you

you let make them drive middle right. And then in the NBA it's no middle clothes out like yeah, you get little tweaks here and there. But the fundamentals of defense. My uncle taught me that the fundamental of reading an offensive play and reading how a defense is guarding you, and understanding the tendencies of the guys you're playing with and where to get them the ball, and how to get them the ball and put them in position. My

uncle taught me a lot of that. Now. I was then blessed to have great coaches, Coach Dawkins, coach Speedy Um obviously coaches though along along my path. But my uncle is the person who laid the foundation for me, who taught me how to play good basketball. It was never just roll the balls out of Hey, guys, y'all go play, you know, and hey, you know all rights practice town, you roll let's pick up like no. We for two the first two weeks of the season, we

wouldn't touch a basketball. And so that's who laid the foundation for me and the player that I've become. I don't want to create bulletin board material. Five minutes left, so you haven't jumped into the game plan on the Celtics, but you've played them before. It to a very good defensive team. Every player that starts for them got to vote for all defense. You guys were third, they were first. I think you guys are about as versatile as Boston,

maybe more so, with much more experience. If I said to you, give me one memory this year of the earlier games against the Celtics. What if you're head on the pillow going to bed, you're thinking about the Celtics, what comes to mind. What comes to mind for me is in that second game that we played, it was I remembered the game like it was just I think it was my second game back from my back injury. And what jumps out at me is the way Robert

Williams erasist mistakes. You know. So they're this great defensive team one hundred percent, if anyone agrees as me. I love defense. I love to watch it, and so I really enjoy watching their team because they're they're a damn good defensive team. But I think what people don't realize is is how many mistakes that Robert Williams covers up for and how many mistakes that Marcus Smart covers up for now. Robert Williams covers up the mistakes at the rim.

He's eracing shots left and right. Jordan Poole had had one where he cut down the lane, didn't even know he was open, and I dropped it down the lane. By the time he turned the lane it up. Robert Williams came from the corner. No, he came from the opposite wing and blocked the shot. Was nowhere in the play. He had a couple more plays like that in that game. And so Marcus Smart covers up mistakes beneath the room. You know, he covers up. He MUCKs up a lot

of stuff. He gets gritty and gets into the ball and throw your time and on your ball screens off. And then they and you know most defenses has one guy that covers up mistakes. They uniquely have two, and they play two totally different positions. You have one covering up out on the floor of mistakes and then you have one covering mistakes at the rim. And I think that is what really makes their defense special. And then you have al Horford who just know everywhere to be.

You know what you're trying to Colin al Horford knows what you're trying to do. He knows what I'm trying to do. And so when you add those ingredients along with Jason's length, along with Jayla's lane and those other ingredients around that, you have yourself and absolutely incredible defense. So that's the one thing that truly jumps out at me is how they have multiple guys that can cover

mistakes for other guys and that makes for a great defense. Okay, you have one hundred and fifty technical foul and most of them I think have been by design. Uh some times to motivate your team. Um, by the way, I covered Rashid Wallace, so you ain't close to that. He got double now that covered him. I covered him in Portland. He had a he had a forty game stretch where I think he had thirty. Okay, so there's five active

players that have more than you. I'm just gonna give you DeMarcus Cousins because I know you would have guessed that one. Absolutely. There's four guys left guess one. Four? Yeah, yes, Um, you know who's who's He's very sneaky win it. I don't think he has more, but I would love to nois count And that's Paul George. He's not here, but he's sneaky. Is quite a bit of text. Three to one. I would not guessed this. Carmelo Anthony has one ninety three.

I could definitely see Melo getting tax all for sure. I'm not sure how I missed out on mel Melo be talking about. I mean, obviously Melo has gotten you know, he's in Europe nineteen now. He's toned it down a bit. But Mellow be talking crazy the roughferees like, I would never forget this game. We were playing in the garden, and if I'm not mistaken, it actually I think it's the same game where Steph shimmy passed me and I was standing there like this, but after that was the

game he had fifty foreign the garden. If I'm not mistaken, and I'm standing there like this after the three and he shimmy passed me, I think it was the same as that game. But Mellow, I would never forget this. He got the ball. I was guarding him. He got the ball, and he like mid posts, caught it, put his head down, boom into my chest, try to lay it up, and you know I held my ground and he missed it. And he turned to the rough called the motherfucking file. I'm like, WHOA. So now we come

back down. Mellow, being who Mellow is, he goes to the same exact spot, gets the ball, this is the very next play, and does the same exact move, same exact move, creates the same exact contact boom, and he gets the file. He's like, yeah, motherfucker got damn. And then he walked. He walks, just walks onto the free throw line. Now he didn't get attected in that instance, but that's kind of a microcosm of who Mellow is and how he went about or goes about his business

on the court. And then you add in that all it takes us for a guy to say one word to Mellow and he not stopping. So then you added adding that side of things where he talking to guys and going that guy and get texts on that side. So I can't I can't necessarily say that I'm shocked by Mellow having one ninety three because I've I've seen Melo say some crazy shit on the court, so I'm not shocked by that one. But I'm actually pretty upset that I didn't guess it's five o'clock. That's your limit.

We gotta go thirty. We do have to go, but before we go, because I bought it, I bought an extra couple of minutes. Um, because I noticed I've been looking forward to this since I since I signed with the volume for the Draymond Green Show. The one thing I asked them as I said, am I gonna be on? Am I gonna be able to go on college podcast? Because I've always wanted So I've watched it for years. I've watched you for years, and so I'm like, I've always wanted to come on here. So we're not about

to rush out of this one. Um. I have a question for you. About a year ago, maybe two two years ago, you said, Steph Curry, if he wants to see another NBA finals ever play in the NBA Finals again, he has to leave Golden State to do that. Here's my question. What was it for you that made you think, at any point, if plays healthy, I'm healthy and STEP's healthy all at the same time, that we couldn't do it again just like we did it before. Because I just want to know this whole notion is like what's

Kevin left the whole world? Wrote us off like that is the end, as if we didn't do it before. So I just want to know the thinking behind that helped me understand that college all right, So this is a big brain. There's a lot of stuff moving in there. So in a cap league, I think my takeaway and I do three hours a day. So I don't know where I was then, but my sense was Steph had some injuries, Clay was hurt again, Draymond. It's it's easier to remain a good offensive player in the league than

a great defensive player because defense is much harder. There's gonna be capish us. You're paying paying all of them. A couple of the draft picks were eh. This was like before we knew Jordan Poole's going to work and my takeaways injuries really expensive, I don't think it's going to work, and the West is getting better. Remember at that time, I think Paul had come in, Kawhi had come in, Lebron had come in a d and I'm thinking two things in sports that are bad, expensive and old,

and so I thought, yes, time to bail. Now. Of course history has proved that I was an idiot, but in that moment, I thought I was Einstein. I thought I was really onto something. But man, you talked three hours a day. You know what it's like. It that's my version of a four turnover game. I just didn't have respect. I could respect that, I could respect you know, honestly, honestly though, Colin is I went number one. Three hours a day is insane. I was speaking to someone like,

what you want to do when you're done. I'm like, yeah, I want to do some of this and they're like, yo, you know, Colin, those guys they do three hours, and I'm like, I'm not sure I can quite do three hours a day. That's absolutely incredible with you. It's Stephen ays like, I just don't understand how y'all can focus on sports that long be as precise and poling as you guys are. So kudos. I take my hat off

to y'all for that. It's absolutely incredible. But where I will cut you a little slacker is here most people thought we were older than we are, Like, I think we start winning at such a young age, like I won my first championship, our first championship playing Our were twenty five and so, and then we go to five straight finals. So from twenty to thirty we're in the

NBA finals. Thirty isn't old. But when you see guys for five years straight at the highest level, it's going to give you this this mindset and these thoughts of that we are older than we really are, then we truly are. And I think that's what happened with a lot of people. It's like, oh, they're old. There is and it's like most guys in the league are somewhere

around our age. You know, you obviously have a bunch of young guys, but like they say, from what twenty eight to thirty three is your pride, and it's like, oh, man, those guys are done because they're old. And so I get it because I actually had that problem in college where my first two years I went to the Final four, and then the next two years I'm playing college basketball and everybody like, man, you still in college and I'm like, yeah, dude, I'm only I'm only a junior. Like I said, come

more years left. And so I do think some of that was definitely a product of so much winning in a short amount of time. But on the flip side of that, and I'll be one hundred percent honest with you. I haven't told anyone this. As much as I believe

we would be good again, I wasn't. I can't say that I was so certain that with the way our roster had turned over, that we would win a championship again because, like you said, we had myself, we had stuff, we had Clay, but the roster turn Like if you look at some of those teams, if you look at some of those lineups that I was out there with in the year we won fifteen games, I'd be a fool and a liar and full of ship, which I try to part myself on not being if I told

you in that moment, I'm still like, yeah, we're going to compete for championships, like we can't. I mean some of those lineups, I was the point guard and Eric Pascal was two, and the Mark Spelman was the three, and Willie callings Down was the four, Kavan Looni was the five. Like we saw some of those things, and so I get it. I definitely understand it, but it still pisces me off that y'all will just count us out,

like like we haven't done this before. He's crazy. Well, you know, the other thing was what you guys, do you were a second rounder? H Stephen Clay were probably under drafted. Jordan Pool at one point went to the G League Kominga. You know, Steve's not gonna play rookies in the playoffs. Kominga's twitchy as hell. So what you guys do is the opposite of what the Lakers do.

You draft and develop in your patient. Like, so guys, and you're if you watch you or just your team, you'll draft guys, You'll develop them, and they can disappear for a while, like like you're not going to play in the playoffs, and so as a media guy, I'm like, like, cominga to me, I thought he'd play more against and I'm like, no, you're not gonna play much. So unless you're a die hard, like if you live in the Bay Area and you're literally watching every second of every

Warrior's game, it's different. You use different players. I mean, Steph comes back and Jordan Pool starts and steps on the bench, and I'm thinking, well, he's not gonna he's not gonna be great. Hell, he can't start. But your culture is different. You guys do what big market teams mostly don't. You draft, you develop your patient and it's like, that's not the way the Yankees work, that's not the way the Dodgers work, that's not the way the cowboys,

like big brands usually win. But like Wiggins comes in, I'm not sure, Oh shit, he's pretty good. Then Steph gets hurt, he's not great in the second half, and you're like, I'm not sure if he's ready. And then all of a sudden, I watch him against the MAVs and I'm like, he's as valuable as anybody in the series. So, and you guys have so much depth. It's really to me is a consumer of it. You have so much depth. Kerr is doing so many different things. It's hard to

predict you guys. I mean, I think you would admit this. There are nights against Memphis you're like, wow, that's bad. There are halves against Dallas, Wow, and then the next quarter you're brilliant. So you guys are a lot of variables and a lot of moving parts, and you experiment. So you're not simple. You're a complex culture. That's how I view it. Absolutely, no, I agree one Honestly, I

have to give credit where credit is due. A large fire guy is coach Kerr and the way he coaches, in which he never lets a guy rock on the bench. You know, you would go around certain teams and you're like, man,

this guy has collected twenty DMPs in a row. You would never in your life, in the history of Steve Kerr coaching, find anyone unless it's a playoff game, and playoffs, you would never find anyone under Steve's Kerr's tutelitch or if you will, or under his tree, and I mean tree as far as as players that's going to collect

twenty DMPs in a row. It's not how he coaches. Now, you may collect four in a row and then he's like, hey, I'm gonna put you into the second quarter because he doesn't believe and a guy just sitting and riding on the bench because in Steve, the way Steve coaches and he preaches it and he lives by it, is at some point we're going to need each one of you guys to win a game. And I can't expect you to be able to help us win a game if you sat for twenty games straight and then all of

a sudden something happened and I come to you. I think in large a large part of that is due to his career and maybe what he didn't like as a player because he was sometimes in that position. And so I have to give credit to him. And then I also have to give credit to Bob Myers and

then the ownership group. And why I'm giving them credit is when you say taking young talent and being willing to wait and to defend, Like, yes, obviously, in order to in order to be willing to wait, you have to have talents like Steph Curry, like Klay Thompson, like myself that can still be getting done. Because one thing I can ensure you is Joe Lacob is not okay to losing. I mean, if you ever see Joe Lacob on the sideline when we're losing the game by four points,

he said, this is ridiculous. It's what you gotta love about Joe. Like he he he does not understand losing to the to the smallest degree, and so for him,

he's never gonna settle for losing. Now, where the credit comes in is being willing to hold on to younger guys and not be so hell bent on we need to We need to get all these young guys in here and bring in experience, experienced role players, because if I'm being honest with you, we all would have voted to bring in experience because like I and in the beginning of this season, and I spoke about it before

Bob and I was pissed at me. Steve was pissed at me because I said in my press conference, I said, we've never seen the mix of young guys and older guys work. We've never seen it work like we've always seen that, like, oh man, this team is card in between whether they should go with experience or whether they should go young. And it's a total disaster. And I said in my press comperence, I said, we've never seen it work. But for us, And when I say us,

I mean myself and play and stuff. Andre For us, that is the challenge, and you want as a competitor, you want to take on that challenge and you want to see it work. But if we could all just had a vote and said, the way we know for serving it works is by bringing in experience around us, guys that can understand this cut and understand that and think on the fly and they understand the NBA game.

Now are our front office totally disagree? They wanted to stick with the younger guys and us and it's worked, and so I have to give them a lot of credit for their belief in it and them understanding and ultimately knowing because they, you know, we have conversations about personnel like this isn't just a situation where they're like, all right, these are the guys you have to play with the here you go like, no, they there's a respect level there that they have an appreciation that they

have for us and we have for them, and we have those conversations and if it was up to us, of course, we would all loved to have a ton of experience. They thought totally different. Ultimately we went with that tide of things and they were one hundred percent right. So you have to give them credit for being willing to go out on that limb with the second highest payroll in the NBA and saying, no, we think we can get it done this way and that's the route

we're going to go. And it's been beautiful and helping these young guys grow and watching them grow, it's brought me a different joy to this year because it's not just about I mean, on those final runs, I was the young Clay was the young guy, Steph was the young guy. We had David west Side side Barbosa and the beat goes on. And so now being in a position to help do it's brought me a ton of joy.

And I'm extremely happy that they decided to go the route that they did, because if they did and it was this experience, then it's just more the same, right, Like it's more of what we already done and trying to do again. So I love the challenge and it's been amazing for us. Well, you've been amazing for us.

What people don't realize that may listen to this is that Draymond, more than any professional athlete I've ever probably work with at a podcast company or a television network or radio network, has demanded at the volume that we're we hard coach him that he doesn't want to hear us say he's great. He's not interested. He's like, what am I bad at? I want to be better? And

it's incredibly rare, but I think it speaks volume. I told my wife, she's a Michigan girl, and I told her, I said, the beauty of Draymond the second round picks, giving him a chip on his shoulder. It doesn't matter how rich he is, doesn't matter how many rings that stuff. That stuff doesn't leave you. I said, he is a podcaster like he's a player. He gets up every morning, coach me hard. I want to be better, and I canna tell you as a broadcaster like it's unbelievable. I've

been doing this twenty five years. Man, you are one of one. Got your back forever, and I just love that you gave us. First of all, you gave us sixteen minutes more than you were supposed to. You got shit to do, so go do it all right. I appreciate you having me on, and from the bottom of my heart, I just appreciate the entire company and logan working with Jackson Is. It's been an honor. You know. I did the podcasting before, and it was really early.

I wasn't truly committed to it. I'm kind of doing it at my pace, and like, all right, after four weeks off, let's let's record an episode. And I told myself, if I ever got back into it, I have to go back into it with the mindset that I'm trying to build something, with the mindset that it takes time and effort, and a commitment to it. And I remember the first week we took off this year, like Jackson had to really fight me on that, Like, no, Draymond, I think we could take this week off because I

just didn't want to, Like I want to. I want to stay true to it and be great at it. And so the coaching that you mentioned, I appreciate it was I've learned so much this year in doing this and how to how to keep it going and not how the breaks in the action and just so many different things and nuances that I've picked up. And it's in large part due to the coaching, you know. And so you know, I watched film on myself with these things, and I take notes with the coaching and try to

incorporate that into my next segment. And so, you know, for for you guys to be experts in this space and have all the experience that you all have, I am, I am. I appreciate you all for teaching me and showing me how this podcast thing should be done. Because in Mama High college, I thought it was just you gonna pick up a microphone and you go talk and

it just flows, and it's so different. And so I appreciate the coaching and the belief in me because I think, um, I think we're making this thing great man, and that's my goal in it. So I appreciate you. Well, I'm not supposed to root for players or teams, but it's as I as I've sat on my show now, every time I mentioned you, I say, Draymond Green hall of Famer eventually, and the best sports podcast in America. I'm very proud and keep kicking it. You're crushing for us,

and good luck, buddy, Thank you. I appreciate it. The volume, make sure to check out The Draymond Green Show. I brought Draymond Green into the volume because one of the more entertaining voices in sports. Unique perspective understands behind the rope, also chops up with guests like Gary Peyton, Zach Levine, Tracy McGrady. Make sure download The Draymond Green Show wherever you get your podcasts, only on the Volume podcast Network.