As they put the 2022 NBA Finals in their rearview mirror, the Celtics’ young core may be eager to forget the pants-pulling, public-mocking mind games of Golden State Warrior Draymond Green. But it would serve them better in the future not to forget Green’s shenanigans.
In fact, they could take a thing or two away from the experience.
Green gloated about his Sun Tzu-like tactics in a crossover live show with J.J. Reddick’s “Old Man and the Three” podcast earlier this week:
“I felt like I could go out there and bully them a little bit. Sure enough, I was, and I heard their coach on the sideline yelling, ‘Stop talking to him! Why are y’all talking to him? Just stop! Leave him alone, don’t get into that with him.’ I said, you know what? I need to do it more.”
“For me, I was like, I’m going to go in and create this mindset of totally disrespecting these dudes, and destroy them,” he continued.
It worked. Like the tactic or not, Green got into Jaylen Brown’s head (and shorts), and eventually helped his team to their fourth NBA Championship.
Green’s instigator role is nothing new in the NBA, and head games predate the 3-point line. Bullying is a dirty word in today’s world, but the Celtics could benefit from adding a little bit of that edge to their group beyond Marcus Smart, a player who has, at times, balanced on a razor’s edge between passion and volatility.
Grant Williams told his teammates he’d “handle it” during the Finals, the 23-year-old didn’t have the experience or swagger to back up that bark when it came to facing down 3-time champions in their early 30s. He wants to emulate Green, but that attitude needs to mature with his time in the league. It doesn’t happen in one postseason.
Who else could the bite come from? It can’t be forced onto guys who don’t appear to come by it naturally, like Jayson Tatum. That would be like Steph Curry kicking a guy in the family jewels during the playoffs. That’d just be wrong.
But Jaylen Brown has shown a willingness to tangle with Green and talk about it afterwards, so perhaps there’s something coaches can pull out of him there.
One more great aspect of Green’s approach is his self awareness, another characteristic undervalued in today’s league. Green knows his offensive ceiling and his physical limits, and he’s embraced them on his way to four championships. Any Celtics player looking to maximize his time and talent would do well to find his identity on this team early, and ride it out for as much success as possible.
The snarling, trash talk and outright mockery isn’t the classiest gamesmanship, but it’s been part of Celtics culture since Larry Bird was telling his defenders his next shot. And nobody in Celtics green can hate being lumped in with that guy.