When Draymond Green was having one of those trademark nights in Game 2 of theWestern Conference semifinals at Oracle Arena in Oakland on Tuesday, one observer in attendance had a different perspective than the rest.
Kiki VanDeWeghe, the former player who heads NBA discipline as the league’s vice president of basketball operations, saw the mercurial Golden State forward in all of his playmaking, trash-talking glory.
He saw Green screaming in the face of New Orleans forward Nikola Mirotic near the end of the second quarter, saw his dust-up with Pelicans point guard Rajon Rondo at halftime, saw his tense tangling on the floor with Anthony Davis in the third quarter and heard all the postgame banter with Charles Barkley in which the TNT analyst said from the Atlanta studio that he wanted to punch Green in the face.
Pot, meet kettle. Barkley, who would later apologize, inspired that sentiment plenty of times in his Hall of Fame career.
VanDeWeghe didn’t have any formal business to handle that evening, and none of the antics led to the kinds of fines or suspensions that have dogged Green in playoffs past (cough, Game 5 of the 2016 Finals, cough). But the thing that shouldn’t be forgotten about that night, and that VanDeWeghe himself likely appreciated as much as anyone, is that Green’s team won the game.
The three-time All-Star has been the Warriors’ best all-around player during this postseason run, helping them set the stage for Stephen Curry’s triumphant Game 2 return from his left knee sprain by checking more boxes than anyone else in the playoffs not named LeBron James. The defending champion Warriors, with their reigning Defensive Player of the Year having upped his game on that end from the regular season, lead all playoff teams in defensive rating (99.9 points allowed per 100 possessions, with Utah a distant second at 102.3). Their top-ranked net rating in the playoffs (plus-11.5) is also way ahead of second-place Houston (plus-6.7).
Say what you will about Green’s in-your-face style and fine line he walks between passion and poor sportsmanship, but it has had everything to do with Golden State’s greatness.
“I just had to bring some force,” Green, who had 20 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds in Game 2, said when asked by a reporter why he “seemed like a man possessed.”
“We were playing soft that first quarter. The second quarter, we needed to, you know, bring some intensity to the game, and you know, that’s my job.”
Does Green sometimes go too far? No question. The mistakes he made in 2016 will haunt him forever, with Green having paid a steep price in those Finals — courtesy of VanDeWeghe and his staff — when James baited him into a flagrant foul in Game 4 and subsequent suspension en route to the Warriors coughing up that 3-1 lead to Cleveland.
But as Green said then and would tell you now, he isn’t about to change his fiery ways. Ever since he rose through the Golden State ranks — from second-rounder out of Michigan State to David Lee’s backup during the Mark Jackson days to the Warriors’ “heart and soul,” as coach Steve Kerr deemed him in November 2014 — his fury has been part of their fiber.
It has almost always served them well. And now that the Warriors are on Year No. 4 of this incredible run, with a fourth consecutive Finals appearance in their sights and rivals barreling their way with fresher legs and fuller gas tanks, this team needs Green’s passion more than ever.
There’s a reason more teams don’t win back-to-back titles. Fatigue sets in; complacency follows. The hunger required to win it all, which seemed to fade when the Warriors lost 10 of their final 17 regular-season games while waiting for Curry to get healthy, often disappears.
Kobe Bryant knows this as well as anyone. He was the driving force behind two of the last three NBA teams to win consecutive championships (the Los Angeles Lakers three-peated from 2000 to 2002 and won in 2009 and 2010; Miami, in 2012 and 2013, is the other). As Bryant’s playing days were coming to an end in March 2016, he was asked which Warrior he considered the X-factor to the team's future success. He didn’t pick Curry, whose second MVP season was nearing an end at the time.
He picked Green.
“You’ve got to have some kind of internal conflict that keeps the team on edge, you know what I mean?” Bryant explained at the time. “Because if not, then it just becomes so easy. You kind of coast, and you kind of fall into a malaise. Draymond seems to be the guy who really drives the team every day in practice, and so they’re going to need to have some type of challenge internally to push themselves.”
So far this postseason, it’s mission accomplished on both fronts for the Warriors. And Green, more than anyone, deserves the credit.
