Draymond Green stands out as a throwback player, a relic from a time when basketball was all about the bigger picture. He embodies an era where referees wouldn’t give fouls if they were committed on a rookie, where referees would tell rookies to “get out of my face”. His style of play reflects that no-nonsense, all-in mentality. It’s clear that Green isn’t just here to play – he’s here to do everything possible to make sure his team wins.

He’s the type who would have thrived in the gritty, no-nonsense days of basketball when people valued toughness above all. But today, he’s mixing that raw edge with a more modern approach—taking on the challenge of blending defense, offense, and leadership.

And we saw this on Christmas when the Warriors took on the Lakers. He revealed some details of the exchange between him and the Lakers rookie Dalton Knecht on The Draymond Green Show with Baron Davis. In a moment of pure Draymond energy, he ends up with a technical foul. Sorry, that’s just every Draymond story. “I got a tech because Dalton Knecht called me a little b–ch. And I said, shut up, I got a tech,” he said.

The referee, who was standing right there, witnessed Knecht’s comment but didn’t flag him. Instead, Green was the one penalized for reacting. “Which is insanity,” Green says, clearly frustrated. As he put it, “Mind you, the referee is standing on this side, looking straight at him, talk to me, and then I got a tech!”

While this is our Warriors floor general terrorizing today’s rookies, in all fairness, the vet has helped them too.

Draymond Green has a hand in making the Grizzlies so good!

Jaren Jackson Jr. was almost a second-year player at Michigan State, not the NBA star we know today. But his decision to enter the draft almost didn’t happen. During an appearance on Tony Allen’s Out the Mud pod, JJJ opened up about how close he was to returning to college. He revealed that Michigan State’s legendary head coach, Tom Izzo, didn’t take his indecision lightly.

In fact, when Jackson started signing up for sophomore year, Izzo just laughed and told him to leave. “He made me leave. I wouldn’t have left,” JJJ said, still surprised by the whole situation.

But what really pushed him to make the leap? That came from none other than Draymond Green, a figure JJJ didn’t even personally know at the time. The Warriors forward didn’t mince words when he called Jackson, chewing him out about his draft prospects.

“Draymond called me and started cussing me out about how high did I wanna go in the draft,” Jackson recalls. “I’m like, ‘Yo, who is this guy?’ Then I’m like, ‘Alright, I guess I’m out.’” That was all it took for Jackson to reconsider his options, and the rest is history.

Green’s tough love worked, and Jackson entered the draft, where the Grizzlies selected him fourth overall. Fast forward to today, and Jackson’s turned into a top-tier defender, even earning the 2023 Defensive Player of the Year title. This season, he’s putting up a career-high 22.7 points per game, helping propel the Grizzlies to a 24-13 record and third place in the West.