“He’s always been so passionate. And when he goes wrong and his passion gets away from him, it turns into anger.” Warriors‘ HC Steve Kerr was recently able to provide a perspective on Draymond Green’s nature. The veteran’s competitiveness is often seen materializing on the NBA court, sometimes in ways that have gotten out of hand. From putting Rudy Gobert in a headlock to swinging at LeBron James and Jusuf Nurkic, Green’s unruly behavior has not only limited his game appearances, amidst long suspensions, but has had financial implications, too. Fortunately, some sort of realization seems to be donning over the veteran.

Draymond Green has taken steps to bring an improvement to his demeanor after the five-game suspension post the Gobert incident, and an indefinite suspension for striking Nurkic in the face last season. He went as far as to lose 30 pounds in the offseason and increased his rate of contesting three-pointers. The Bay veteran highlighted receiving the motivation for this change from the therapy, and the “DG check-in calls”, that he had to undertake after the infamous incidents. After all, it helped him realize that he should not shy away from taking responsibility for his actions.

“I want people to say, ‘Man, right here was a little bleak. But then look where it went from there. And that’s due to because he took accountability,’” Draymond Green told ESPN. “Regardless of how I felt about the Rudy situation, the Nurkic situation … the Jordan Poole [incident], any situation, I took it on the chin. I took accountability for it, and I moved forward.”

Draymond Green’s remarks about accountability came in the aftermath of the Warriors-Grizzlies matchup when he received a tech for his repeated use of the word ‘Boom’. Ironically, Green’s usage of ‘Boom’ came after he had received a separate technical foul, to the surprise of Stephen Curry and Warriors fans, after the veteran and Zach Edey got tangled up in a rebound attempt.

Addressing the incident later, the Warriors veteran denied taking any ‘secret accountability’ by stating, “I can tell you anything. Don’t mean it’s real. But I can tell you the sky is green. It’s on you to go outside and see if it’s green or not. Or if you even believe me or not. So, yeah. But my children lose money in their trust fund because I said, ‘Boom’. That’s beautiful.”

After grabbing Rudy Gobert in an ‘unsportsmanlike and dangerous manner’, Green earned an automatic ejection and suspension without pay. Missing the next five games meant Green forfeited around $769,704 in salary. That is in addition to paying a fine of $4,000. As highlighted by Sportrac, by Nov 2023, the power forward had forfeited around $2.2M ever since he began his NBA career. These were made up of fines from 171 technical fouls, and 19 ejections, including the salaries not paid during four suspensions.

Therefore, despite having an estimated net worth of $90 million, Draymond Green may not want to lose any more money. At least for the sake of his eldest daughter Olive Jay, son Draymond Jamal Green Jr., daughter Cash Green, and youngest daughter Hunni Green. The floor general has taken accountability as the first step to prevent his money from being spent on fines and lost pay again.

Engaging in the therapy sessions did much more for Draymond Green than allowing him to take accountability. It also prevented him from making a decision that would have caused Stephen Curry to lose another valuable teammate.

Draymond Green revealed that therapy prevented him from contemplating retirement: “My teammates need me out there”

The aftermath of the previous season’s incidents was exactly when Green had the biggest realization of his life. He recalls telling NBA commissioner Adam Silver, “I told him I don’t want to do this anymore. This doesn’t serve me anymore. It wasn’t that I was contemplating to do it right then. But I was [thinking] I probably got a year left and I’m done.”

However, thanks to Silver and NBA mandated therapy sessions, and “routine NBA-led check-in Zoom sessions with a seven-person panel to ensure he was participating regularly in counseling/therapy sessions”,  the 34-year-old finally feels like himself.

In Kerr’s own words, “He’s in a good place family-wise; he’s a great dad. He loves his kids. He recognized last year how much his actions impacted his young kids. He doesn’t want his kids seeing him in that light. And it’s easy for everybody on the outside to say, well then don’t do that stuff.”

“But he is a force of nature and as competitive as any person I’ve ever seen. His game lives on the edge of passion and rage, and he has to find that balance. And he’s found it this year.”

The sessions helped to change his mind about retirement and help him understand the reasoning behind his actions too. “I hate losing,” said Green. “If I’m losing, you’re going to ratchet up everything that you have to change that. With that comes high emotion. With that comes an engagement that honestly isn’t quite welcome in this league. And so it’s a challenge. I just got to understand that [pushing the line] can’t be the way, that my teammates need me out there.”

Having said that, amidst his recent revelations, the next games will be an indicator of whether he’s changed or not.