Golden State Warriors veteran Draymond Green is rarely short on opinions, and one New York Knicks player has had enough.
During a recent appearance on Jeff Teague’s “Club 520″ podcast, Green argued that Brunson made a mistake by leaving roughly $113e M on the table instead of taking the maximum payout the Knicks could offer.
“Jalen may not be willing to take that risk, but he’s different. You’re the number one option on the New York Knicks,” Green said.
“The city of New York loves you, you going to get that 250… It’s the New York Knicks, bro. They can afford it. You ain’t got to take no discount for them to get paid,” added the four-time NBA champion while urging Brunson to get back his money next season.
Draymond Green Namedrops Josh Hart
Brunson, the reigning NBA Finals MVP, is eligible to sign a four-year extension worth roughly $280M in the summer of 2027, with the new money kicking in in 2028-29. Green is confident the Knicks captain will get what he’s owed, but still feels Brunson set the wrong precedent by making a huge sacrifice in 2024–signing a four-year, $156.5M deal to help New York build a contender.
“He the top guy,” Green said of Brunson.
“Let Josh Hart or somebody else take less. They in my role,” Green continued.
“Guess what, Steph Curry ain’t take a penny less. And neither did Klay Thompson. I don’t know what he’s doing. That’s $100 million.”
Josh Hart took serious exception to being unnecessarily name-dropped. He fired a brutal message, essentially asking the Warriors star to mind his own business.
“We got to normalize grown men not counting other people’s pockets,” Hart wrote.
Green has yet to respond to Hart, but most likely will when he records the next epsidoe of “The Draymond Green Show” later this week.
Why Jalen Brunson Took a Paycut
After the sacrifice paid off in a championship this summer, Brunson explained why he had no regrets about taking a pay cut, as it led to the desired result.
“You never know what can happen in a year,” Brunson said on “The View” after winning his first NBA title. “When it was presented to me, obviously the deal, being able to play with a free mind, not thinking about if I play well, if I do this, if I do that.”
“I kind of thought, ‘Hey, this is on the table right now. Let me just get this out of the way so I can play free,'” he added.
If Brunson hadn’t left $113M on the table, the Knicks may not have had the cap flexibility to trade for OG Anunoby and Karl-Anthony Towns in back-to-back years, and ultimately land Mikal Bridges to complete the most potent starting 5 in the league. Brunson admitted as much.
“And then obviously being able to be on a contending team,” he recalled.
“I knew that if I did this, at some point it was going to come back for me,” Brunson added. “Something good was going to come back from it.”
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