Draymond Green has dominated the headlines in recent days with comments on his punch of Jordan Poole and subsequent Twitter squabble with Poole’s dad.
During that same episode of ‘The Pat Bev Podcast’, which was released earlier this week, Draymond also made some eye-opening comments about his new teammate Chris Paul.
They might be trying to win a championship together, but Draymond isn’t ready to become fast friends with CP3.
“There’s no sugarcoating what has happened all these years,” Green said. “This is real life, man. People get it twisted, like, ‘Ah, man, you’re a character.’ No, this is real life we’re living when we’re playing in these games. To just go front and act like all of those things was fake – I’ve publicly said I don’t like Chris before. I’m not just gonna be, like, ‘Ah that changed now he’s my teammate.’ No. I look forward to talking amongst men. I look forward to working with another adult. I’ve had my fair share of days of not working with adults and people don’t move like adults. So I’m looking forward to going to work with an adult.”
Welcome to the squad, CP!
There’s a lot to unpack in Draymond’s statement, as he referenced a 2020 interview with the ‘All The Smoke’ podcast when he declared, “I don’t like CP at all. Like we don’t have a good relationship at all.”
It’s also worth noting that Draymond seemed to take some more shots at Poole, as he dropped the word “adult” four times during his response, seemingly in reference to Poole’s immaturity.
For now, Green is on the same squad as Paul, a guy who the Warriors used to detest throughout the years. Here’s Draymond’s full statement on CP3 from 2020.
“I don’t like CP at all,” Green said. “Like we don’t have a good relationship at all. But I respect his hustle and I respect his IQ. He’s smart as hell. CP saw Steph coming up and once you start to get older in this league, it’s like, ‘OK. This guy is coming and he may catch me, because I’m gonna start to decline at some point.’ I would kinda see CP keep Steph at bay but giving him a stiff arm at the same time.
“Steph is Steph. We all love Steph. He ain’t cut – he ain’t got the street part to him. With me coming from where I come from and the way I grew up, I’m kinda watching, like, ‘He kinda rock with you Steph, but he kinda don’t. He kinda keeping you at bay.’ So I took it upon myself to try and create f–king division there.”
While Draymond clearly appreciates Paul’s on-court ability, we’ve seen that off-the-court drama can derail a season, like Green’s punch affected the Warriors 2022-23 campaign. Draymond is 33 and Paul is 38 – those guys aren’t going to change anytime soon.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr is renowned for his ability to corral egos and maintain peace in the locker room, but he will have his work cut out for him this season.
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