Getty Draymond Green reacts to a play during a Golden State Warriors game.
Draymond Green is taking some heat for what may have been a misguided attempt to show love to the NBA eras of old.
The Golden State Warriors star offered a high-tech comparison between the league’s current era and the time of Michael Jordan, trying to argue that all eras should be appreciated in their own way without having to compare them. But Green — who has a history of making controversial comments about past NBA greats — may not have gotten the reaction he intended.
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Green Says Past NBA Era Like ‘AOL’
The Warriors big man made the comments during a discussion with Kyle Kuzma on an episode of “The Draymond Green Show” where the two compared players from different periods of the NBA. While Green believed that today’s players are faster and more athletic than those from the league’s past, he didn’t believe that should take anything away from older players.
“Can you compare AOL to high speed internet today?”
@Money23Green and @kylekuzma have the perfect analogy for all you zoomers comparing eras
“I don’t understand why people compare eras, but when they do, I have a question. Do they take into account the difference in styles?” he said. “Because I am sitting here watching and I’m appreciating all of their greatness. But I’m watching it and I couldn’t help but say I just don’t understand how you can compare us to this team. Not that Michael Jordan isn’t great or the greatest or however you want to slice it.”
Green went on to compare today’s game to high-speed internet and the older era to dial-up.
“Do you remember AOL?” he asked Kuzma. “Can you compare AOL to high-speed internet of today? Was AOL great when we used it? Is internet great? Just because [today’s] internet’s great doesn’t mean AOL wasn’t great when it was being used, right? Why in the f**k can’t we do that with basketball?”
Though Green was trying to show appreciation for players that came before him in the NBA, not all fans saw it as such a favorable comparison. Several pointed to his example of Jordan, saying he would have been just as successful in any era of the NBA.
“Michael Jordan was playing with high speed internet before AOL existed though,” one person tweeted in reply to Green posting a clip of the discussion.
Others believed Green wasn’t giving enough credit to how tough the game was played before his era, and how much harder it was to score in the past.
“Name pg that play defense like a Gary Payton or ron Harper in this era,” one person replied.
Green Confident in Warriors
This is not the first time that Green has courted controversy with his analysis of the NBA past. In a tweet last month, he claimed that his Warriors squad that won the 2017 NBA title would have easily beaten Jordan’s final Chicago Bulls team.
“I’m watching the 98 Bulls vs Utah in the Finals,” Green tweeted. “I can’t help but notice our 2017 team would’ve beaten these Bulls by a dub and these Jazz by 40 if they’re going to play these brands of basketball. And that’s why it’s dumb to compare [eras].”
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Warriors’ Draymond Green Sparks Controversy With NBA Comparison