After watching the first two episodes of ESPN’s “Last Dance” documentary, Warriors big man Draymond Green drew some parallels between the 1997/98 Bulls and the 2018/19 Warriors.
Appearing on Uninterrupted’s “WRTS: After Party” show with Paul Rivera and Maverick Carter, Green suggested that the uncertainty surrounding Kevin Durant‘s contract situation during the ’18/19 season prevented Golden State from approaching the year knowing whether it would be that group’s last chance to win a title.
“Kevin took the one-year deal on his own. So that was kind of the elephant in the room,” Green said, per Nick Friedell of ESPN.com. “And although (head coach) Steve (Kerr)‘s approach was like, ‘Hey, guys, let’s approach this year because we don’t know what next year brings,’ you’ve got Kevin’s contract, you’ve got (Klay Thompson)’s contract, and I kind of got thrown in that contract thing, although I had another year after that year, which was this year.
“And so that was kind of the elephant in the room, and although Steve would kind of hit on it, (saying) ‘Let’s just enjoy this year for what it is because we don’t know what next year holds,’ it didn’t necessarily carry the same weight because what should have happened was Kevin come out and say, ‘Hey, man, this is it (his last year with the Warriors), so let’s do this,’ or, ‘This isn’t it.'”
As Green mentioned, Durant signed a one-year contract with the Warriors during the summer of 2018. While that was Durant’s third consecutive short-term deal with the team, there was an understanding when he signed his previous two contracts that he wouldn’t be exploring the free agent market when they expired. That wasn’t the case with his third deal, so KD and the rest of the Warriors faced questions throughout the ’18/19 season about his future and the team’s future.
In the case of Michael Jordan‘s Bulls, there was an understanding heading into the ’97/98 campaign that it would be his and head coach Phil Jackson‘s final year in Chicago. Green suggested this week that having that sort of certainty last season may have benefited the Warriors.
“There was always an elephant in the room amongst us, as opposed to with (the Bulls), they didn’t have that elephant,” Green said. “(General manager Jerry Krause) had said it was Phil’s last year. Phil had told them this was the last dance. Mike already said, ‘Well, if Phil ain’t coming back next year, I’m not either.’ So everybody knew it was Mike’s last year. They didn’t have that elephant. Whereas I think we had a huge elephant sitting in the room, and Steve was trying to address it as best as he could, but it was kind of out of his hands.”
Even if Green is right that Durant’s contract situation was a distraction for the Warriors, the team still came close to winning a third consecutive championship last spring, and may very well have done so if not for injuries to Durant and Thompson before and during the NBA Finals.
There’s a elefante in the room
Maybe check the wording at the end of that second paragraph. Seems backwards.
I worded it as intended, but I can see how it’d be confusing, so I tweaked it.
Draymond is like the saltiest person in the NBA.
They one 1 without KD and 2 with KD. And Draymond is like “we won without you man” whenever KD gets annoyed with him.
Like yea he won in 2014-15 without KD, and most people would argue that Draymond lost them the finals in 2015-16.
Some of the reason KD left is b/c he wasn’t getting enough credit for the championships. And you could see the relationship between Draymond and KD on the court, like that dude didn’t help. When you can’t stand the people you work with, you leave if you can.
Draymond didn’t lose them the title. The league handed queen James, Lord of traveling and crying, a title because he is a manufactured superstar propped up by a league that panicked when it lost popularity after MJ retired. Let’s be real. Be objective and rewatch all of Cleveland’s post season.
James doesn’t travel any more than anyone else. It’s allowed in the NBA. You have to be a hater to even see it while ignoring everyone else. Indeed James doesn’t get the calls a more feeble player might.
But this clown had ZERO issue when he was courting durant to join GS in 2016 under the same exact scenario…..
But when it happens to HIS team….NOW he has a problem with it.
STFU with that garbage. You got Duranted….join the club.
Clearly he expected Durant to realize this was the team he wanted to play for and would never want to leave. Draymond said that was where he wanted to be and would want to stay. Draymond said Klay said the same. But Durant didn’t know what he wanted. Draymond couldn’t see why. That’s all this is about. So why the negativity towards green. It’s the truth.
And sooner, ur right, they shouldn’t have been surprised. Durant obviously needs to be loved and it’s not about titles. When the warriors courted him Durant was like Sally Field at the oscars (hopefully some of you are old enough to remember this) when she finally won an award. “They like me. They really like me!” He’s just a diva
he thought by simply being a champion everyone would love him (Durant) and when he didn’t get that love, he felt like his accomplishment was hollow.
and my response to that is what did you expect? the average fan hated your move and saw it as weak, and yet you still thought the virtue of being a champion would overpower that?
wrong, he’s a diva chump. all he had to do was come out and say either I don’t know what I’m going to do, or yes I’m leaving deal with it, this is the last hurrah but he avoided the question the entire year because he wanted to save face like a little weak prima donna.
Yes, AND he wanted to be courted and shown the love again.
CSN Bay Area is showing replays of warrior games. I’ve watched the 2013 Denver playoff series (3 seed Denver v 6 seed warriors) when barnes, green and ezeli were rookies. I enjoyed this games way more than replays when they had Durant. In fact, I’ve stopped recording the recent games. PreDurant games are way more enjoyable. I would rather they didn’t have Durant even if it meant less titles.
Let’s not forget, if green doesn’t get suspended (half his fault and half Lebron getting him suspended cuz he could) they likely win in 15 and 16.
And let’s not forget that if they didn’t have Durant they would’ve paid another great player. Or maybe paid to keep barnes. Barnes first year away from gsw he made nearly what gsw paid Durant.
The team could win without Durrant if Klay Thompson doesn’t go down with a knee injury pretty strong likelihood they beat the Raptors without KD.. KD Couldnt win with harden and Westbrook and ibaka..draymond basically said the truth.. they won without him and it was true.. Durrant wanted to make it about himself.. draymond made it about the team success..Can’t wait for the nets too implode when Kyrie is back..
Face it the NBA is happy Durant left. If Durant stayed and neither KD or Thompson got hurt we would be looking at 6 or 7 straight championships. NBA would have been boring another championship for GS.
If “ifs” and “buts” were candy and nuts, every day would be Christmas.
Well all that stuff did happen. Golden State alienated KD when they should have been doing everything to make him stay.
F that. KD wasn’t staying and the drama had to go. I thank him for coming but I think all Warriors fans are ready to move the hell on after his self inflicted drama.
The only team that would’ve won 8 in a row was the bulls..The Warriors while good Were getting old and getting very expensive.. the economics alone would’ve broken them up..facts are facts 1-1 without Kd and 2-1 with Kd.3-2 hardly a dynasty.. lakers in 80’s won 5.. 5-3 in 80s and 5-2 in Kobe Phil jackson era
Both years they lost because of injuries. Durant, Thompson, and Curry would dominate the league. The Dynasty is not even over. #1 pick could put them back on top. Keep being a hater but you know they would have easily beat Raptors if they were healthy.
And they won a title against a heavily injured team. If you want to downplay their losses because of injuries, downplay one of their wins.
Simply put, the Warriors never won one of these titles without KD against a healthy team. No way is that a dynasty.
Facts cool.. 1st year with Kd the Cavs didn’t have k love
The 73-9 team lost due to injuries? No that team lost because draymond green can’t control his emotions and got suspended when the team needed him.. ultimately losing in there home floor in game 7.. if you think there dynasty is gonna restart because they have a first round pick in a crappy draft than you are a homer.. maybe lamelo ball will lead you to promised land.. they neva lost although every team the ball boys play for lose.
Green should be very careful, he literally has Zero value if he were on any of the other 29 teams.
Shhh Warrior fans swear he is worth 100 million to every team in the leauge even though he is lucky to get 10 points a game.
You obviously don’t watch any Warriors games.
You obviously only watch Warrior games. Imagine thinking teams would want that Draymond contract.
The Warriors would not have won any championships last decade if they didn’t have Draymond. At $25M/year, it is not bad at all.
LMMMAO pure delusion. They had 3 all stars. They would have been just fine without Draymond
Swept Portland last year while draymond AVERAGED a triple double.
Almost led them to a win v Toronto AFTER klay and Durant got hurt. 11 points, 19 rebounds, 13 assists, 3 blocks and 2 steals.
I don’t just watch warriors games, I watched the finals, as did you afk and dangler.
So if you think no other team would want green, who has the nads to do what he did in that last game, you not only don’t know the game, you likely just don’t like him. I might not either if I couldn’t have him on my team.
Just say it. YOU DONT LIKE DRAYMOND GREEN. Cuz that’s all this is about
I’ll say it. I don’t like Draymond Green. But he was pretty essential to the Warriors successes. I’d imagine he’d more of a liability on most any other team though.
because scoring is the only important element in basketball. right?
While I did adamantly defend KD when he came to the warriors, and I still think the cupcake nonsense was just that, nonsense. The warriors team that was built on “strength in numbers” and ball movement was perfect for KD’s skillset. Regardless of what happened in Oklahoma City that year, KD was leaving. Of course once the team was gutted to accommodate KD the team wasn’t the same.
All that said, KD has made some incredibly pathetic comments since leaving the warriors. We get it, the world is about you Kevin. He has the mentality you teach kids not to have. You don’t join a team as popular and dominate as that warriors team was and then cry when the universe doesn’t reallighn around you after you join.
He’s a cupcake, just not for the reason people have been saying for years.
the most fragile superstar on this generation. his desire to be loved got in the way of a great thing.
when he looks back he’ll regret leaving, cuz he ain’t gonna get another ring.
And then the narrative will be that he only won because he joined Steph’s team – the very thing he was trying to avoid being said from the beginning.
Elbow and Dodge, you both nailed it.
Dre keeps that team together. TEAM. No one in nba does what he does. I’m not even a fan. He’s Rodman with offense. Higher IQ, Rodman was IQ player. He’s all about basketball and his team. The best similarity between Bulls n Warriors. Is they both understood team ball. Team concept O n D, and professional when it came to balling. They did do it differently. KD wants to be loved. He sees love Bron, Curry, Russell, get. He can’t get it. Why he is not talked about being GOAT. Bron can change teams, he gets love. Not KD, he don’t get it. It’s why he’s in BK. He wants to show he is Bron. He can win wherever he goes, it’s him. But he took safe option in BK not Manhattan. Just like with Warriors not Thunder. Thunder had, Ibaka, Jackson, Harden, Russell, KD, Adams’s, healthy Green. Yet no leadership to see that thru. KD left Thunder after having Warriors on the ropes. He’s not an alpha. An alpha thinks he can win without Shaq. Like Kobe. I’m not a Kobe fan. You think MJ would have joined Pistons. I’m not a MJ fan. After losing to them 3 times. KD is a great offensive player. But he is no ALPHA
he got alpha skills but a beta mindset.