Getty Draymond Green reacts to a play in a game against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Draymond Green has admitted that he found it difficult to stay motivated when the Golden State Warriors‘ five-year run to the NBA Finals came to an end and the team sunk to the bottom of the NBA.
This year, with the Warriors quickly jumping back to the top of the league, the All-Star has a little extra help in staying motivated. Green explained how he wants to impress his two young children, who were both a little too young to have memories of the Warriors’ half-decade of dominance over the rest of the NBA.
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Green Wants Kids to be Proud of Him
Talking to reporters after the Warriors improved their league-best record to 15-2 with a win over the Toronto Raptors, Green said that his children are starting to get high expectations for him. That in turn makes him want to play even better, Green said.
“My son is getting older, my oldest daughter, she’s seven now,” Green said, via NBC Sports Bay Area. “They kind of get on my a** if we lose, so that’s motivation. And I think for me, also, I’ve been sh**ty the last couple of years, so my kids don’t really understand how good I am. And I want them to see how good I am so that they’ll have an understanding. So that is motivation for me.”
Draymond wants to show his kids how good he is at basketball 💙
Green has given his children a lot to be impressed with this season. He has been the driving force of Golden State’s league-best defense, holding Brooklyn Nets star and former teammate Kevin Durant to 19 points on 19 shots in a Golden State win last week. As Kurt Helin of NBC Sports noted, Green has earned some early buzz as a Defensive Player of the Year candidate, which would be the second DPOY honor of his career.
Green’s Revived Love of the Game
Though Green has gained a reputation as one of the league’s most passionate players, he admitted that it was hard to find his love for the game when teammates Klay Thompson and Steph Curry were lost with season-ending injuries and the Warriors fell off a cliff in the 2019-20 season. Speaking to The Ringer’s Logan Murdock last month, Green said it was difficult to handle such a swift fall from grace.
“It was just a totally different situation that I was dealing with for the first time in my life on top of the abruptness of it,” Green said. “You couldn’t have told me three months before that I would go from the best team ever to the f**king worst team in the NBA.
“It was frustrating. And it was also a mind-f**k.”
But the passion is back this year, and so is his love for basketball. After the November 21 win over the Raptors, Green again referenced those difficult seasons and said that he has found a new perspective that has him loving basketball again.
Draymond and Wiggs getting it done on both ends of the court 😤
“I’ve just kind of found that love again,” Green said, via NBC Sports Bay Area. “Going through a lot of s**t, the love kind of wane’s a little bit. I’ve just found that love and joy for the game, and I’m enjoying playing basketball and controlling what I can control.”
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