When Draymond Green Speaks, Listen

“I would like to talk about something that is really bothering me. It is the treatment of players in this league. To watch Andre Drummond before the game, sit on the sideline, then go to the back, then come out in street clothes because a team is going to trade him, is bullshit. "When James Harden asked for a trade and essentially dogged it—no one is going to fight back that James was dogging it his last days in Houston—but he was castrated for wanting to go to a different team, and everybody destroyed that man. And yet a team can come out and say, ‘oh we want to trade a guy,’ and that guy is to go sit, and if he doesn’t stay professional, then he is a cancer, and he's not good in someone’s locker room, and he is the issue. "We have seen situations like Harrison Barnes getting pulled off the bench, DeMarcus Cousins finding out that he is traded in an interview after the All-Star Game, and we continue to let this happen. I got fined for stating my opinion on what I thought should happen with another player. But teams can come out and continue to say, “we’re trading guys, and we’re not playing you,” and yet we’re to stay professional.

"At some point, as players, we need to be treated with the same respect and have the same rights that the team can have. Because as a player you are the worst person in the world if you want a different situation, but a team can say they are trading you and that man is to stay in shape, he is to stay professional, and if not, his career is on the line. At some point this league has to protect the players from embarrassment like that. "We talk all of this stuff about, 'you can’t do this and you can’t say that publicly, and if you say that publicly you’re fined'—Anthony Davis got fined I think $100,000 dollars or something like that for demanding a trade publicly. But you can say 'Andre Drummond is getting traded' publicly and 'we are looking to trade him' publicly and he is to stay professional and just deal with it? Then when Kyrie Irving says my mental health is off, everybody goes crazy about that too. Do you not think that affects someone mentally? As much as we put into this game to be great, to come out here and be in shape, to produce for fans every single night, and most importantly to help your team win, do you think that doesn’t affect someone mentally?"But as players we are told that you can’t say this, you can’t say that, but teams can. It goes along the same lines as when everyone wants to say ‘oh man that young guy can’t figure it out.’ But no one wants to say that the organization can’t figure it out. At some point the players must be respected in these situations and it is ridiculous, and I am sick of seeing it."

Draymond Green