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Dryamond Green Rips The NBA For Its Double Standards

Source: Ezra Shaw / Getty

Draymond Green didn’t bite his tongue during a recent press conference. 

Following the Golden State Warriors’ 129-98 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers, Green is easily one of the league’s most outspoken players who decided to use his post-game press conference to get something off his chest. After fielding just one question, Green veered off and ripped the NBA for its treatment of the players and the ridiculous double standards they have to endure.

Green’s three-minute passionate opinion came after the Cleveland Cavaliers decided to sit its center Andre Drummond until they can secure a trade for the big man.

“I would like to talk about something that’s really bothering me,” Green opened up. “And it’s the treatment of players in this league. To watch Andre Drummond, before the game, sit on the sidelines, then go to the back, and to come out in street clothes because a team is going to trade him, it’s bulls—.”

Green didn’t just stop at Drummond. He shifted his focus to the messy divorce between James Harden and the Houston Rockets.

“Because when James Harden asked for a trade and essentially dogged it, no one’s going to fight back that James was dogging it his last days in Houston, but he was castrated for wanting to go to a different team. Everybody destroyed that man. And yet a team can come out and say, ‘Oh, we want to trade a guy,’ and then that guy has to go sit, and if he doesn’t stay professional, then he’s a cancer. And he’s not good in someone’s locker room, and he’s the issue.”

Following the game, Green and Drummond, who did not play, did talk, and it would be safe to assume that Green told him exactly how he felt about what the Cavaliers are doing to him, and it spilled over into his press conference. Green also brought up other situations where players were just benched or yanked off the floor suddenly, getting fined, as well as Kyrie Irving’s publicized mental health issues.

“At some point, as players, we need to be treated with the same respect. And have the same rights that the team can have. Because as a player, you’re the worst person in the world when you want a different situation. But a team can say they’re trading you. And that man is to stay in shape. He is to stay professional. And if not, his career is on the line. At some point, this league has to protect the players from embarrassment like that.”

“We talk all of this stuff about: ‘You can’t do this, you can’t say this publicly. If you say that publicly … Anthony Davis got fined, I think $100,000 or something like that for demanding a trade, but you can say Andre Drummond’s getting traded publicly, and we’re looking to trade him publicly, and he’s to stay professional and just deal with it?

“And then when Kyrie Irving says, ‘Oh, my mental health is off,’ everybody go crazy about that too. Do you not think that affects someone mentally? As much as we put into this game to be great, to come out here and be in shape, to produce for fans every single night, and most importantly, to help your team win, do you think that doesn’t affect someone mentally?”

“As players, we’re told to, ‘Ah, no, you can’t say that you can’t say this. But teams can? It goes along the same lines of when everyone wants to say, ‘Ah, man, that young guy can’t figure it out.’ But no one wants to say the organization can’t figure it out. At some point, the players must be respected in these situations, and it’s ridiculous, and I’m sick of seeing it. Y’all have a great night. I’ll see y’all [Tuesday] or Wednesday.”

Draymond Green told no lies during his press conference and is being heralded for speaking so candidly about the situation. You can see the reactions in the gallery below.

Photo: Ezra Shaw / Getty

He Had Time: Draymond Green Sounds Off On The NBA & Its Ridiculous Double Standards  was originally published on cassiuslife.com