Draymond Green joined Jeff Teague on Teague’s podcast Club 520 and broached the topic of the 2022 NBA Finals. The Warriors won the series 4-2 over the Celtics, securing their fourth ring in seven seasons. Draymond was particularly proud of that championship victory for several reasons, none more prevalent it appears than proving to Kevin Durant that they could win a championship without him.
“2022 wasn’t really a championship team, like the championship teams I’ve been on,” Green said to Teague in the episode. “It wasn’t really a championship team, and I’ll tell you after every series me and Steph would be walking to do an interview after we won a series, and we’re walking and laugh, and we laughing like yo how are we winning like these series right now, like this is funny. That’s also when Steph took that next step like I’m really one of them GOATS and he carried us, but that was the toughest one, we weren’t favored, everybody was calling us too small, Boston they too athletic they too big, we didn’t stand a chance, and we went and made it happen, so that one was my favorite one and I also told KD I’m going to win when you leave here and I did that. So that one was the most fulfilling.”
Green is seemingly alluding to his heated exchange with Durant during the 2018-2019 season when they played the Los Angeles Clippers. Per Chris Haynes, sources told him that Green said to Durant in the argument, “We don’t need you. We won without you. Leave.”
Green and Durant seemed to have reconciled their differences since then, having a recorded sit-down in 2021 for Bleacher Report discussing the incident. Green seems proud of the Warriors’ accomplishment in winning a championship after Kevin Durant joined the team.
Randall Barnes is a Fall 2019 Graduate of Fort Valley State University, an HBCU (Historically Black College or University) in Fort Valley, Georgia, where he majored in Media Studies. He is the Founder of HBCU Pulse, a multimedia outlet with the mission to tell the authentic stories of HBCU Life via traditional, digital and social media outlets to amplify our voice. He is also the host of HBCU Pulse Radio, which can be heard on SiriusXM Channel 142 HBCU Fridays at 5 p.m. EST and wherever you get your podcasts. Read More
