The Golden State Warriors barely scraped out a victory over the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday night. While the game was exciting, the true excitement came when the game was over and veteran Draymond Green went to the podium.
Green is pretty much always going to make headlines when a microphone is in front of his face and he did not disappoint. He got asked about San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama's recent comments about how defense is half of the game and he went off for several minutes.
Draymond Green couldn't help but get animated about defense discourse
Green's full remarks can be viewed here, but in short he said of Wembanyama's comments, "I hated it, and I absolutely loved it. And the reason I hated it is because until Wemby said, ‘defense is 50% of the game,’ nobody realized that? No one realized that 50% of the game we play is on that end of the floor?”
He has a fair point. It seems so obvious that half of the game is defense, but with how offense-minded most fans and commentators are, the art of defense has sort of fallen by the wayside. That's why Green is a player from a different era to some degree given he's a defense-first sort of player who is mainly on the floor because of what he does on that end, and any offensive output is seen as a bonus.
Green was also frustrated in his remarks that many NBA fans and commentators seemingly do not know how to properly analyze the game, at least in his view. He seems to think that most people do not go beyond the box score and looking at how many points a player scored or their plus-minus on the night.
If that's all a player was judged on, Green never would have developed into the future Hall of Fame player that he is. Golden State's dynasty would almost certainly not be what it is, or was depending on who you ask, without Green's defense and intensity at the heart and soul of it. Therefore it's only natural that he would get so animated defending his craft.
That's why his answer was about more than Wembanyama. In a way, it was a meditation on his own style of play and how players like him may be seen as less valuable in the modern NBA. He sees the writing on the wall and knows he's not going to last forever.
The Warriors may soon be staring at a sad reality with Green. He's 36-years-old now and his play has come under greater scrutiny this year. There is a chance the Warriors might move on from him this offseason and his name came up a lot in trade rumors before the deadline.
It would not feel right to see Green with another team, but maybe his defense-first style is not what the Warriors need right now, no matter how fervently he defends that half of the game.