Golden State Warriors 4-time All-Star forward Draymond Green has earned a “bad boy” reputation for his emotional outbursts.
But underneath his “bad boy” image is a generous and kind-hearted soul.
His former Warriors teammate Jordan Bell recently shared a heartwarming story that revealed the good side of Green on the “Run Your Race” podcast.
“We went to China and I’m sitting in my seat and he’s upstairs on like, you know, it’s a big plane,” Bell said, recalling an episode with Green during his rookie year in 2017. “So he goes, ‘Come up here, rook.’ I always loved doing the rookie sh*t so when he called me, I went running and was like ‘Yo, you need something? Can I bring you a water or anything?’ and he just handed me a laptop, an iPad, a remote control, like to games, you know, he put games and stuff on there.
I was like, damn, like, this dude doesn’t know me and he’s just taking care of me already. We got to China. We have to wear suits to the events and I was like, I didn’t, I don’t have anything. I came from college, we didn’t have to do that. He bought me five suits in China.”
Draymond Green Stays in Touch With Jordan Bell
Green’s kindness to Bell did not end there. The veteran Warriors forward continued to stay in touch with Bell even after he departed from the Warriors in 2019.
“Like, Draymond always took care of me, and even to this day, he still checks in constantly even now for my son,” said Bell, who has been out of the NBA since 2022. “Like, when I had my son he was like, yo, like, make sure you touch them and pick them up and you know, skin to skin. Before I didn’t know what that was, like I had heard about it but I’m thinking that’s when you first give birth, but no he’s giving me details on life, basketball.”
The 33-year-old Green has just returned from an indefinite suspension which cost him $1.8 million in salaries, according to ESPN front office insider Bobby Marks.
But his return was marred by a jarring 116-107 loss to the shorthanded Memphis Grizzlies on Monday, January 16.
Draymond Green Offers Solution to Warriors’ Woes
After dropping to 18-22 in a disappointing season that came to a pause with the untimely death of assistant coach Dejan Milojević, Green offered a solution to fix the team’s messy play.
“If we got guys that’ll take pride in themselves and play defense — one through 17 or however many guys we got — then it is solvable,” a disappointed Green told reporters after the loss. “If guys won’t take pride in defense, then it’s not.
It’s very simple. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out.
You got to take pride in your one-on-one matchup. I think every guy they had down there beat their season average and so you got to take pride. It starts with one-on-one defense and if you take pride in one-on-one defense then the team defense will automatically get better right? A shell or trap, the box-and-one, that stuff, will not matter until we take that pride. It’ll be the same old story.”
The Warriors will return to court on Wednesday, January 24, against the Atlanta Hawks after the postponement of their two games last week.
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Former Warriors Player Reveals Different Side of Draymond Green