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Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green seriously considered retirement during his indefinite suspension for striking Phoenix center Jusuf Nurkic in the face, according to an ESPN report.
But NBA Commissioner Adam Silver talked him out of his rash decision, Green revealed. The emotional topic will be part of the new episode of his podcast “The Draymond Green Show.”
“I told him, ‘Adam this is too much for me. … This is too much. It’s all becoming too much for me — and I’m going to retire,'” Green said in the video clip obtained by ESPN. “And Adam said, ‘You’re making a very rash decision and I won’t let you do that.’
“We had a long, great conversation — very helpful to me. Very thankful to play in a league with a commissioner like Adam who’s more about helping you than hurting you; helping you than punishing you. He’s more about the players.”
The NBA lifted Green’s suspension on Saturday, January 6, but he will need more time to ramp up his physical conditioning after being away from the Warriors for 12 games. He returned to the Warriors bench in street clothes during Sunday’s 133-118 loss to the Toronto Raptors at Chase Center.
Green’s return came with conditions that he will continue undergoing counseling and constantly meeting with representatives of the NBA, NBPA and Warriors to chart his progress.
Draymond Green Is ‘Happy to Be Back’ With Warriors
Before the Warriors suffered an embarrassing home loss to the Raptors, coach Steve Kerr was beaming with excitement on Green’s return.
“We just had our walkthrough so he took part in the walkthrough,” Kerr told reporters. “And [it’s] good to have him back.”
Kerr, however, remains non-committal on when would Green play his first game back.
“I don’t know,” Kerr said. “I mean we’ll just see. He’ll work with Rick [Celebrini] every day and he’ll get lots of shots set up and scrimmage and all that stuff and I have no idea when that will be.”
Green was animated on the bench in his first appearance since the indefinite suspension which lasted 12 games.
“Everybody’s excited to see him,” Kerr said. “It’s great to have him back. He’s one of our leaders and he’s happy to be back. So, it’s a good vibe in there.”
The good vibes of his return immediately went out of the building when the Raptors, rejuvenated by the trade that brought them RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley, smothered them on both ends.
Barrett dropped a season-high 37 points, including 26 in the first half, on the Warriors, who showed little resistance on defense. Quickley added a season-high 10 assists and nine points.
Toronto stifles Golden State’s offense by zeroing in on Stephen Curry, who missed all of his nine 3-point attempts. The Raptors’ defense held Curry to only nine points, his second-lowest scoring performance this season, on 2-of-14 shooting.
Andrew Wiggins-Jonathan Kuminga Experiment Backfires Anew
Kerr tried again to play Andrew Wiggins and Jonathan Kuminga together and it quickly backfired.
The Raptors went off to a 9-2 start, and built a 24-12 lead before Kerr pulled out Kuminga and Wiggins. The Warriors never recovered from their flat start.
Their duplicative forwards were a combined minus-34 on the floor.
The jarring loss dropped Golden State two games below .500. Their 17-19 record is sitting at 11th place, outside of the play-in picture in the Western Conference.
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