PERSONAL GROWTH
Warriors’ emotional leader keeps his cool without losing his edge
Draymond Green has grown up and shrunk down right before our eyes.
He came to the Warriors five seasons ago as a second-round draft pick and something of a gamble. He didn’t have a real position — he was a ’tweener. He was overweight, 248 pounds on his 6-foot-7 frame. He wasn’t a great shooter or rebounder. He’d shown leadership and spunk in college, but those merit badges don’t always translate to NBA stardom.
Draymond’s rookie season? Meh. He averaged 13 minutes and 2.9 points on 32.7 percent shooting from the floor. If there was a superstar lurking inside the slightly chubby and talkative young man, it was hard to see.
After his rookie year, Green shed 18 pounds, mostly by riding a stationary bike in the sauna. Don’t try this at home, folks.
Even the slimmer Green might have plodded along in the NBA, a suit-filler, but when opportunity knocked at the beginning of his third season, Draymond opened the door and bro-hugged the opportunity.
When starting power forward David Lee was injured in the final preseason game, rookie head coach Steve Kerr had to play someone. That was Green’s chance, and he carpe’d the diem.
It didn’t take long for Green to become the emotional leader of the greatest basketball team on Earth. He was so effective while Lee was recovering that the former All-Star power forward was rendered obsolete. Green’s defense and three-point shooting changed the Warriors at a fundamental level. He was named to the NBA All-Defensive first team.
Confident and outspoken from the day he put on a Warriors uniform, Green’s voice in the locker room and on the court became stronger with his starting role.
A different coach or a different set of teammates might have tried to put a lid on a lippy young player. The Warriors’ players made room for Green’s voice, appreciating his fire and leadership.
Life with Green is an adventure. He dresses down teammates on the court, most famously Kevin Durant this season. His temper often flies out of control, and that cost the Warriors dearly when Green was suspended for Game 5 of last year’s NBA Finals.
After Monday night’s Game 5 victory, it was an older and wiser Green who — after showering off the Champagne — explained his personal growth. So many people had been begging him to keep his cool, he said, that he held “a real seminar with myself . ... Is it that bad?
Like, does it look that bad that everyone I see — I’m in a grocery store, guy’s like, ‘Keep your cool.’ I’m like, ‘Jesus Christ, this must be bad.’ ”
Green not only kept his cool on the court, but after the title was secured, he resisted his initial impulse to lash out at his critics, refs, opponents and assorted haters. He gave ’em all love and respect, instead.
That’s your new, improved Draymond Green. Smaller, but a lot bigger.