Draymond Green reflects on NBA suspension, Steph Curry & Adam Silver conversations, Warriors return

Draymond Green reflects on NBA suspension, Steph Curry & Adam Silver conversations, Warriors return

Draft King sports book an official sports betting partner of the NFL is bringing you yes an offer that will help you win money in the NFL playoffs new customers bet five bucks that’s it five bucks that’s it$ five dollar any game and get $200 instantly in bonus bets are you

Kidding me I bet five that’s it download the draftking Sportsbook app now it takes 90 seconds and put in Colin C o l i n easy peasy new customers five bucks that’s all you have to bet and get $200 instantly in bonus bets only on the draft King Sportsbook the code is Colin

C o l i n and the crown is yours what’s up everybody welcome back to the Draymond Green show this is actually our first episode of the year since July um and it’s been a long time coming um I resign with the volume which I am extremely excited about our partnership

Um this partnership that we started two and a half years ago as I said this is our first show um there’s no surprise in what has been going on with me this year um and I want to talk about those things um number one in coming back uh and

Working my way back from the indefinite suspension uh that I’ve been serving um I’ll start from from the beginning and just kind of walk you through my process uh I know everyone’s had their questions about what that process is I know everyone has had their their answers on

On what that process is and I just want to lift up the curtain um and let you in on that process as I think for me in my life I know it’s been a very important one um and as you know I’m not one to shy

Away from from letting you guys in on these things uh for starters uh let’s go back to December 12th um that that date will be ingrained in my mind for a while uh let’s go back to December 12th um in Phoenix Arizona playing against the Phoenix Suns third

Quarter um and I connect with nurkic get kicked out of the game do my postgame interview of those things and as I said then and I’ll say now I was wrong um I was wrong regardless of what I was trying to do regardless of it like none of that

Matters um I was wrong I accept my fault in that and I apologize um not only from from that uh you know Rudy Gober um situation I was wrong went way too far I am a guy who plays on the edge um I am a

Guy who walks right up to that line and I have no problem with admitting I have walked over that line um and for that I apologize um I apologize to uh my family um as they had to endorse some things that as a leader of a

Family you have to lead when it’s good you have to lead when it’s bad and that’s a as a leader of anything very hard to lead when you’ve created the bad and and doing that and creating the bad I I am someone that’s created so much good for my

Family and you enjoy those times you like appreciate those times you smile SM and you laugh through those times I created bad for my family and for that I apologize um brings pain I have a wife I have children I have parents I have grandparents siblings friends um that I embarrassed and it

Hurts it hurts um you know my mom experienced death threats uh my children I have two children uh that are of school age um and so they have to go to school um they go to school in the Bay Area uh most of their friends are warriors fans you know or their parents

Are warriors fans um and so my children has has had to live with that Joe Lup made a commitment to me this past summer uh for the next four years and the conversations that we’ve had we had and leading up to I fell miserably and I apologize for that

Um the Golden State Warriors organization I always say like that’s my baby like Steph clay Steve Bob like we’ve been there from the beginning of what you know the Warriors as today and um I fa them miserably and Um that you know I’ve heard so so often times you in in in what we do you you try your hardest to block out the noise um you try your best to not log on to this thing or not go on to that thing not go watch this TV station

Because at times it can be very very very overbearing on top of what’s already a very stressful life and a very stressful job and this time I did the opposite I dove all way into all of it so everything that everyone has said I mean it’s impossible to hear everything because it’s so

Much but I’ve heard a great deal of what everyone has said and and normally I’d want to say f you or watch me show you or um I’mma take that I’mma bottle all of it up and I’m going to use it to make sure I can throw it back in your face

And if I’m honest that fuel has driven me so far and being able to bottle those things up has driven me to who you know today the reason you know the name Draymond Green in in I wouldn’t say in large part because there’s a lot that go into it

But a part part of that is that fuel of grabbing all of those things and saying now watch what I do to you with the fuel that you’ve given me and this time was different for me I watched them and I listen so I took you back to December

12th and now I’ll say we’re at December 14 I sat in my man cave for two days and just sat there um my kids didn’t know I was home only person really knew I was home was my wife and my my daughter my three-year-old she facetimed me and she

Said Daddy you in the man cave I said I am and she just dropped the phone and came running back there and pulled me out pulled me out into the yard and we played and I’m not sure how much longer I would have sat back there but I know it

Wouldn’t have been the 14 and um it was special because I was just sitting back there in the dark listening to what everyone had to say and although I didn’t stop listening that day I realized that I had to move forward that day and also on that

Day coach Kirk came to visit me after shoot around and we sat in the yard he cried I cried um because there’s a bond there that see at all seeing the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows and he just said to

Me I want you to end this the right way I want us to end this the right way and you’re not doing that right now so I want you to do what you have to do to get in the space to where you can

Do that and that we can do that and he said to me your press conference the other day I was happy I was proud of it it was so much better than your other ones he said you took accountability you apologized and I thought wow draymond’s moving in the right direction

Said because you’ve apologized before but there’s always a butt or maybe you kind of apologize and there’s a butt said no butts and I start laughing he said what I said my wife told me that last night she told me last night whenever you are ready to move

Forward whenever you’re ready to speak whenever you’re ready to do whatever you need to do I’ve heard you apologize and obviously I’ve spoke to you so I know you’re willing to apologize but no butts no butts and I said to Steve coach Kerr I said Asel told me the same

Thing that’s why I laugh because it’s so true I said and I’ll get to explain and you know you go through these things and you start explaining maybe what you were thinking or and it comes off as like but this but that and so I told both of them whenever I do

Speak there won’t be a butt I let let the Warriors organization down I let the NBA down um my family myself my partners I’ve always been one that said your responsibility is what you make of it just because you’re in this position don’t mean you have the responsibility they say you

Have and a part of me still believe that but in going through what I’ve gone through one thing that I do realize is the responsibility is much greater than I realize and so I said that I said that to say the responsibility that’s been placed

Upon me as a father as a husband as a as as a podcaster as a business owner as a television personality as a a black man in America I I’ve handled it miserably terribly and in sitting through those first days and just listening I heard so many people say he need

Help and as I sat and listened to those people quite naturally the ones that I saw saying I needed help I’m like who said that this person said that no way this person said that but you go through stages of understanding things you go through stages of how you may feel you go

Through stages of thoughts and so my initial thought was he said that and um and what I realized is you’re headed back down the same path you’ve been allowing yourself to go down with that mindset and so I made a commitment to myself to the Warriors organization to the NBA

To my family to the volume to all of my partners that I’m going to listen to what they say I’m going to make my own decision but what do I want to do about that and so I made a commitment in those days to be a champion of

Change what does that mean Draymond what are you talking about what does that mean that means accepting that there’s a place for growth accepting that you up and you were wrong so as opposed to listening to what these people are as opposed to listening to how these people are saying things let’s

Listen to what they’re saying and then you do whatever you want to do with the information and I’ll tell you it really pissed me off when Kevin Durant said he wasn’t like that when I was around I hope he get the help he needs and I start going into this deep dive of

Like how this how that but then it’s like wait a minute what do you want the world to know about you and so I sat with myself and thought about that and I’m like interestingly enough the world still thinks I’m the same Draymond as I was in

2017 and the reality is is I’m not I’m not even close to the same Draymond that I was in 2017 but I quite frankly has not allowed anyone in the world to see that growth to see that change um and I’ve had my reasons why again we live a very public life

And sometimes you just want to try to cut that off and what I realized in that moment is in me cutting that off I have not allowed myself to be vulnerable when it’s okay to be vulnerable I not have I have not allowed myself to grow in certain areas that

Quite frankly I need to grow and even if I have grown in those areas I definitely haven’t showed it and so then I went back to Kevin Durant statement and I said he said he was not like that and so as I sat with myself I

Said I think it’s time that the world get to know me who I am and if I can look at Kevin’s statement the right way through the right mindset through the right lens he’s acknowledging essentially what I want the world to know about me and then he spoke about help and I’m

Like how he going to say I need help and when I went back through with another lens I was like maybe you shouldn’t hear help so negatively like maybe you’re listening to the word help with the same mindset that the word help meant when you were 15 years

Old so maybe you shouldn’t hear that negatively so negatively and maybe he’s not saying that as negatively as you’re taking it and even if he was I made a decision in that moment that I wasn’t going to take it that way and for me it was a very proud moment for

Me because I said you’re ready for growth that’s a step in the right direction and I am one who celebrates small wins like I don’t I used to take wins for granted I celebrate small wins and so for me that was something to talk to those that are very close to me about

Like hey I feel like I had a breakthrough like and just a small breakthrough in my mindset because I was able to look at this differently and bottle it up differently and package it differently I feel like that’s a breakthrough for me let me build on that and

And once I did that I felt okay now I can start to put together what I think this process should look like now I can start to put together the areas of growth that I really truly believe that I need to grow in because in sitting in listening to those things

What I also realize is people can say anything people can say what they want but unless you’re in a space of saying I need to grow here here and here it never works and so I said okay that’s definitely one area that I need to grow

Great and then I’m able to start putting these pieces together of the areas that I need to grow and start along my journey of growing not taking things so negatively not looking at the word help from the mindset of a 15-year-old Draymond because Draymond at 15 had no

Resources so to hear the word help in sagon Michigan with no resources it’s a very foreign thing and then you hear how much people on it and you move yourself as far away from it as you can and I realize what’s the point of having all

The resources if you’re not going to use them it is immature it is quite frankly stupid and if you know anything about me one of my biggest pep peeves is for somebody to take me for stupid it’s very stupid and so I started to talk to some different people that I trust

And started to lay out a plan and trust me but it been since December 12th three weeks three and a half weeks I am still the same Draymond you knew before you don’t just change the spots on the leper but what I do realize are there are some things that I can leave

Behind the Antics I can leave behind and it’s okay that won’t change the Draymond that the world has gotten to know that won’t change the way I play the game of basketball stop taking the excuse and running with it and saying I can’t play the way I play if I don’t do this

H that’s not true and so I’m no longer going to use the excuse and so as I started off if I was going to walk you through my journey um I had a conversation with Adam Silver commissioner our leag and I just told him Adam is too much for

Me like it’s too much like this is too much it’s all becoming too much for me and I’m going to retire and Adam said ah you’re making a very rash decision and I won’t let you do that and I’m like no Adam like not really sure it’s a rash

Decision it’s just all too much and you know we had a long great conversation very helpful to me very thank thankful uh to play in a league with a commissioner like Adam uh who’s more about helping you than hurting you or helping you than punishing you or you know he’s more about the

Players and so I’m very lucky to have or to be in a position to be under the guidance of Adam Silver of a Joe D Mars of uh someone who’s been really close to me hand in hand throughout as I’ve been walking through this Bob Myers and for the first five seven days

Of this thing I talk to him two two times a day and I’ve always said like Bob is uh our relationship go far past him being our general manager and I said that when he was our general manager and like going through things like this

Shows what it means to be a true friend I only hope to be as good of a friend as he is to me remember when I first talked to Adam Adam like Bob’s called me so many times like Bob’s called me a million times I keep talking to

Bob and it’s just like this dude is like he just cares so much like P’s working ESPN and home with his family what does he care so thankful it’s again it’s not often times in life that you have people like that in your corner Steve Mike dun leevy uh the

Amount of people that’s reached out to me during this current players past players GMS coaches owners was one of the things that really made me think wow you can’t just run you can’t just like say this is it and run into retirement there’s actually people that care but you walk through

This journey and you’re not really sure how many people really do care sometimes you can feel alone um it’s okay for it to be too much but it really just brought me to a space of no you can’t just run do what it is that you need to do

And figure it out and do it the right way and so I’m very thankful um and I won’t mention Everybody by name but you all know who you are I’m very thankful uh family friends um I’m grateful I am grateful for the time that I’ve had uh to

Grow and again I’m not going to sit here and act like oh man like this guy is a totally different person in three and a half weeks never going to be that guy but in three weeks a lot can happen and a lot for me has happened um I came to some some

Spaces and going through this I totally put put my phone down not texting not on the phone not having a worry of whatever it is that the outside world bring and I’ve been home with my family and it’s funny because it brought me to a realization of I became a

Husband as an NBA player I became a father as an NBA player and everything around and in between as an NBA player how much did my schedule’s been the same the past 12 years yeah you tweak something here you tweak something there but overall the schedule has been the

Same and in putting my phone down and being so present with my family and being so present in those moments I’m missing text I’m missing calls and I realized I had no time to talk on the phone I had no time to text but the busiest part of my life was

Removed how is it that I have no time now and it was a very eye openening experience for me because it made me realize or just open my eyes to what are your priorities what do you prioritize where can you be better you think you’re giving x amount

Of time to this or x amount of folks to this but are you really and so as I said three and a half weeks don’t change the spots on the Lepard not saying that but what I also understand is I also don’t need the spots on me changed what I need is to

Grow and I’ve embraced that growth and know the growth don’t end now um the growth is just beginning but I’m embracing the growth I’m embracing this I’m embracing every moment of it and I can’t necessarily say I’ve always done that I can’t even necessarily say I’ve always felt the

Need to do that I’m so thankful to the organization for this time I know everybody’s like oh he hasn’t been around the team so great for me so great for the team um incredible because I’ll be better from it in all facets of my life and that I’m excited about

Um I would always talk you know we have these business of basketball meetings and we have meetings we have so many meetings that you all would never know um aside from like film like therapists Come and Talk uh Sports psychologists come and talk like you have security me you have all these different

Meetings but one in particular we’d have every year is like where um you know every NBA team has a therapist and a sports psychologist that you can use it’s your choice and we be in those meetings and I’d always tell guys in those meetings like yo I want like I think I need

Therapy and not for the reasons that everyone would think you need therapy and I have childhood traumas I have this thing like and I would tell our say and to our team and that meeting i’ be very outspoken about it but I say yo I need therapy I’m so

Afraid I’m so afraid though because the things that you may uncover I’m not sure I’m in a space to handle them I’m so afraid but one day I’mma do it and I tell the god I’mma do it though one day and I’ll be honest I I just I didn’t

Just start therapy um with this like I’ve had been therapy before um and no pun intended it’s been so therapeutic uh to speak to someone that’s not judging you I mean that’s my life being judged to speak to someone is not judging you to freely speak to work

Through things what you end up realizing is you do most of the talking um and sometimes you need to and so I’m not going to hide from that I’m not going to let the negative connotations I’m not going to let how negatively I saw people speaking about me and throwing those things out

There run me away I’m a champion it I’m a champion to change and so again no this is not oh he went to some therapy and in three weeks he’s great no I still have a lot of things to work on but I am enjoying that

Work and the work that I was so afraid to do I’m happy this brought me to it because there’s also things that you can go to and for therapy and not uncover right like there’s different things you can go to therapy about and this helped me just dive in

Like just just just go all in whatever comes of it comes of it I needed to push I needed that push because it’s something that I had wanted to do anyway I just didn’t have the boss to do it and yes I say the boss to do it because it’s hard

Work takes a lot it’s exhausting work but it’s rewarding and so that’s been my journey um for the first time in 16 years since 2007 17 years I got to spend the holiday weeks with my family for the first time in 11 years 10 years 10 11 years I didn’t walk in an

Arena on Christmas day and you sometimes you just you you you you just don’t realize how much you may need that and so as I said I’m thankful for this time and not because I didn’t do anything wrong because I did and for those of you out there that have

Faith there are you know about blessings and disguise and I think this has been a blessing and disguise for me um for me to Center myself for me to recalibrate um for me to grow and for me to Champion this change be a champion of this change and

No I’m not going to not mix things up on the court cuz I love this game and I love to compete and you just don’t get to turn that off but I am also uh smart enough to know what an antic is and what

Is and I can get rid of the Antics I’m more than capable of doing that I look forward to it um one thing throughout this process that really hurt me I turned on the TV screen and someone uh Stephen A was like uh Steph is a bad leader because Draymond did X

And it pissed me off but it crushed me it crushed me because how is Steph enduring being a bad leader like this guy doesn’t give us anything to tear him down about this guy does everything the right way and yet he’s being tore down because my actions crush me

That was a tough one this that was a tough blow to deal with and because he got crushed publicly for that I’m going to apologize publicly I sincerely apologize to Steph for my actions cuz that was a tough pill to swallow very thankful for Steph uh as I’ve been out on this

Time talk every every day every other day just checking in um he’s like yo I’mma Be Right Here with you through this I’mma help you through this and he’s been very much so that uh all my teammates have reached out at different points too like yo I’m just checking on you how you

Doing I’m thankful for those guys Uh CP who you all know we had our thing as we’ve infamously talked about checking in every day every other day thankful for those guys um Braun checking in yo just want you to know we with you we love you champ like we riding with

You do whatever you got to do know that we with you Tom is I told you all about putting my phone away and so by the time I’ll get to my phone it’s 1:32 o00 and me and is tried catching up for 10 days and couldn’t and then we finally got on the

Phone and we talked for an hour and he’s been texting me every day since still and man you don’t get people like that in your corner especially not no college coach and I know I’ve said this before you don’t get people like that I’m so thankful to have those people in my life

Um and lucky to have those types of people in my corner if you even just sent the text like I couldn’t I didn’t even I didn’t I still haven’t gotten a chance to respond to all the texts because there were so many but I thank you because it’s special and it doesn’t go

Unnoticed and it’s like when the world is flipping on you to know that those that’s really in your corner is still standing there I can’t thank all of you enough for the first few games of my suspension I I i’ I’d hide from my kids to watch the

Game because that’s a tough conversation to have and I remember the first game that I watched with them or that they saw me watching and they were like so confused like Daddy that why you know I’m like oh you know like it’s a tough conversation to

Have but it’s one that I had to have and I grew through it I’ve grown because of it but that was tough I said I walk you through this journey I didn’t touch a basketball for a week 10 days just got away from everything and I’m like you know what let me get

Back on the court let me start back working out um and I did that and I’ve been doing that and had calls with Rich my agent um the league office the Warriors organization on those calls um that’s been the process and the process don’t end today or tomorrow or the next

Day because it’s something that I’ve decided you have turning points in life you have turning points in careers um and I’ve decided for this to be a turning point for me and so it’s not something that ends today because if it’s a turning point you must keep going or you end up back

There and so I look forward to continuing to grow as a person one of the reasons I consider quitting basketball is I’m like the worst of me come out on the basketball court like the worst of me don’t come out in my life um if you talk to anybody who’s around

Me I hardly talk uh I know there’s this common misconception like Draymond super outgoing uh Draymond always has something to say Draymond don’t talk if he not comfortable I’ll sit there and not say a word and um not going to sit here and say I’m changing this I’m changing that I’m

Growing and I think it’s time that I allow you to see the growth I look forward to the opportunity I’m thankful for the opportunity not many times do people get a second or third or fourth chance but I get a chance to show my growth and I’m thankful for

That as I said I’m not going to sit here and say this is the change and that’s the change and this and that because it’s not really about that for me it’s simply about growing it’s simply about represent representing myself representing the brands that I represent um what I stand for my

Family it’s about representing that in the right way I’m excited to get back with my teammates um I’m excited to get back in the arena and do what I love to do because not every day do people not every day do people get to do what they love to

Do and I want to do all that I can to not that up for me it’s a very interesting time in my life also when this first happened um December 12th uh I was closing this deal like um for a nice amount of money and the was like some video game or

Something and I hadn’t signed the deal yet and they came back like oh we want to lower the terms we want to do this we want you to do more we’re going to lower the money and I was just like ah I’m okay I’ll pass and um I’m very thankful to my

Partners in bringing you this podcast to volume because also a deal that was not closed uh that we have been working on for a year and a half like we had actually been working on this deal for a year and a have and ironically this happens right before the deal

Closes after a year and a half of working on this deal myself Dana working with the volume team Jamie Colin Logan Jackson after a year a half of working on a deal this happens right before I signed the deal and you talk about seeing who standing in your corner they still right

There like no we’re here we’re not going anywhere by the way I mean you all saw the media press on December 13 14th we actually met we had a meeting scheduled December 13th like oh by the way do you want to announce right now that you resigned

With the volume and this point in the deal and that point in the deal you want to announce these things right now because the Press on you is so bad we can put this out right now and just like change it up a little bit obviously we did it

Which I think was best to not do it for multiple reasons because number one I needed to sit in that I needed to sit and listen to that not try to change it not throw a Band-Aid over it because hey here’s this great thing that Draymond has going

On I’m happy we did it but to know that Jamie Colin Logan were willing to do it man that’s the stuff when you take a step back and you look and you like those are the things that matters those are the people you want to go on the Foxhole

With so to my volume Family I’m thankful uh to call you all a partner as I’ve said from the beginning um working with the volume has been special to see the growth of the company over the last couple years has been special I don’t take that for granted

And I also don’t take the support for granted very thankful and we going to continue to give you these Episodes

Draymond Green reacts in-depth for the first time to his indefinite suspension from the NBA, revealing the behind the scenes of his conversations with Adam Silver and Stephen Curry, what Dray has learned from this process, how he’s grown, and what excites him most about returning to play for the Golden State Warriors.

Timeline:
00:00 – Intro
02:00 – Nurkic incident
09:00 – Coach Kerr visits
16:00 – Kevin Durant’s comments
24:00 – Convo with Adam Silver
38:00 – Stephen A’s comments
46:30 – Excited for return

Shop the hottest gear in all of sports podcasting: https://thevolume.com/shop-all-new

Follow The Volume on social media:
https://www.instagram.com/thevolumesports
Tweets by TheVolumeSports
https://www.facebook.com/TheVolumeSports

@thevolumesports

Learn more about The Volume:
https://www.thevolume.com

#draymondgreen #nba #goldenstatewarriors #warriors #stephcurry #stephencurry #kevindurant #stephenasmith