Presenting The Draymond Green Show | Draymond Green Versus Skip Bayless

0:00You know Draymond Green, four-time champion with the Golden State Warriors, defensive engine, emotional barometer, and for a lot of people, one of the most debated players of his era. But what happens when the narrative gets handed back to the person that it's been built around? On the Draymond Green Show, Draymond gives you the game reactions and in-depth analysis you expect, but he's also doing something more. He's reshaping the conversation around his career and around himself. There may be no better example of that than his sit-down with Skip Bayless, a voice that, for years, helped define how fans see him, the critiques, the labels, the moments that stuck.

0:45But Draymond doesn't push back in the way that you might expect. He slows it down, breaks it apart, and explains not just what he does on the court, but why. the mindset behind the edge the awareness behind the emotion the calculation behind the chaos it's enough to make you reconsider what you thought you knew so here's a preview of that conversation and if you want to hear where it goes you can find the full episode of the draymond green show wherever you get your podcast by the way skip i'm gonna let you call me a cheap shot artist i don't know if i'd really accept that from it but you've been so nice about it i kind and a little touch bite, so I can't fight back on it.

1:29Okay. Well, I mean, kicking Steven Adams in the nuts twice, that's pretty cheap, right? If I told you I put it on my kids, I really didn't try to. Would you believe me? Okay, all right, all right. Fair enough. But it happened, and guess what? I am one, I stand on what happened, and I deal with the consequences, and it is what it is. And so I deal with those consequences. But I had the conversation with Steve before. Steve Kerr. Yes, and I said, Coach, you know, I said, you don't understand how hard it is. And when I had this conversation with him, it changed our whole relationship. I said, Coach, you don't know how hard it is for me to be me in this whole ethos.

2:11I said, I have to bring the energy every day, the toughness. I said, honestly, Coach, I have to muster that up. Like I'm not naturally this high energetic guy. I'm not naturally coming like, ah. I said I have to muster that up every day. I said that sometimes I just don't have it. I said, but I know I have to. And as a competitor, I'm going to do everything I can to find it. I said, but in doing that, sometimes it's just going to go over the edge. Yep, it is. Because when you're trying to press something to the point of like, I'm going now. Once you get it going, you don't just stop. It's like, ah, you know, like I'm ramped up now.

2:59I'm taking this thing to the moon. You know, like I'm really, and so to then get it to that point and just be like, alright, I'm there, stop. It's not really a realistic thing. I've gotten better at it over the course of years. You have? But in the same breath, I will tell you, but I also lost some of the fire. and trying to get better at that thing because it gets to a point of where it's like, but I don't want this to cost me everything I've ever worked my whole life for. And so in turn, you lose a little bit of the fire. But I can also say at this point in my career, you have to, though. What I had to grow to understand, and don't get me wrong, I'll still have my moments of things that happen, but what I had to grow to understand is that the same thing that's accepted in year six and you're 26, 27, 28 years old.

3:49And it's not accepted when you're about to be 36 years old and you're 14. And so I had to learn that. But just back to the original point, I told Coach Kerr, I was just like, you know, I'm always trying to muster that energy up. And younger in my career, I can pretty much muster it up every day. You know, like as you get older, it's not as easy to get up for the Memphis Grizzlies who's playing no name that you know. Agreed. You know, outside of Ty Jerome, right? And it's a little tougher to get up for that. It's a lot easier to get up for Victor Wimbyam and the San Antonio Spurs, who's a good team, right?

4:27Like, as a competitor, I got to show up on that stage, you know? But I'd go over the edge, but it's like I had to push it there. You did. And then once I pushed it there, it's hard to just hit the break and stop and be like, oh, I'm at the edge now. Now, let me not speak over. I'm on this battlefield trying to do everything I can to win your brain, to take your heart, to completely dominate you. And once I get you to the point of where I got you about to break, I will step over the line because I'm trying to annihilate you. And that's kind of been what's wrapped up and become my career and who I am.

5:08But as I've gotten older, I understand it more. But going through those years, I really couldn't articulate that to you seven years ago. I just knew I had to do whatever I had to do to win and compete at this level that everybody told me I couldn't compete at. And if that meant stepping over that line, damn it, I was going to step over the line and I would figure it out after the fact. From the start, you tortured and tormented your head coach. From the very beginning. From the beginning. Yes. And he was torn about it, torn about it. No, you can't, Draymond, you can't do that. No, don't, don't.

5:47But he knew deep down you were it. You were the reason you were winning championships. And when he says this, he says it with his heart. I wouldn't have four rings without Draymond. That's the God's truth. So he knew that it was all correct. the beast in you was the beast with four rings.