Does Draymond Green, the Golden State Warriors’ strong winger, have a problem with the French basketball player? The answer is definitely yes. He couldn’t bear to see the French lecture him. It’s been a few seasons now that the king of trash talk has featured Rudy Gobert. We remember two years ago the strangulation attempt that the Californian made on the shaft of the double Olympic vice champion.
Draymond Green found another blue-white-red Türkiye head and not just any head: Victor Wembanyama’s head. The two men face each other for the second time this week on Friday night into Saturday. Like the previous two days, San Francisco won (108-109) thanks to a stratospheric Stephen Curry: 49 points.
But what we remember on the French side is the start of the fight that Green initiated against the Frenchman. We’re in the middle of the fourth quarter. The two men had been warming up for some time now. The contact is male. At one point, it happened to him too, Wemby missed a shot at the head of the racket, blocked by his new best foe. Green laughed, the two men exchanged their first sweet words at the height. It’s bad for him: You shouldn’t bother Victor Wembanyama either
On the next throw-in, native Chesnay inherited the ball in the air and dunked on his opponent’s head. The entire Spurs room rose to its feet and it was the Frenchman’s turn to provoke the Americans who hated him. The situation between the two began to escalate.
Several Spurs players were then forced to intervene to prevent the series of incidents from getting worse and deteriorating. “I remained calm, I didn’t try to provoke him. I just responded. I didn’t want to prove anything to anyone. It’s just, for me, when someone talks to you in a certain way, you have to respond in a certain way. It’s simple,” confided the French player after the match.
He’s been fined almost a million dollars since he started
This is not the first time Draymond Green has made statements like this. When he leaves the stage, he is 35 years old, we will probably remember his adventures more than his talent.
Because above all, he is an extraordinary player with an impressive record: four-time NBA champion, four-time All Star, two-time Olympic champion (2016, 2021) and voted the best in the NBA in 2017, a list of records among which his cherished Rudy Gobert was crowned 4 times.
Politically, he is also a staunch opponent of Donald Trump, which he has said since his first election in 2020. “He is probably the master of all masters when we talk about manipulating people. He was elected by manipulating people”
In the NBA since 2012, Green has always played with the Golden State Warriors who wouldn’t have taken over the NBA like they did without Stephen Curry, but neither would they have ruled it without him. “Draymond Green is the best defender I have ever seen in my life,” said his coach Steve Kerr. In addition to being a great defender, he is also an excellent competitor. In the final moments of a game, asking Draymond Green to stop a shot is like asking Stephen Curry to score with a shot.”
He even hit one of his colleagues
Green also has two points in common with Michael Jordan: his height (1.98m) and his jersey number (23). However, this strong American player was above all a great character who was hated by his opponents and referees. We can no longer count the number of ejections that are his record in the NBA. We’ve lost count of how many times he’s pinned the referee. He even hit one of his colleagues. It happened in 2023 when he hit Jordan Poole after practice. The two men no longer played together and no longer spoke to each other.
Last May at the end of the previous season, an American site (Spotrac) calculated that in total, the amount of fines paid by Draymond Green throughout his career amounted to 992,000 dollars (853,169 euros). At the rate he maintains, he will exceed a million during the season. However, he can afford it because he has accumulated 240 million dollars (around €206 million) since the start of his career.
World champions, therefore, trash talk, an annoying habit that consists of provoking or insulting opponents, Golden State’s interior shines as soon as the opportunity presents itself. And many times on Rudy Gobert he takes his nerves away.
“You all should know how stupid you look.”
In 2019, not selected for the All Star Game, Rudy Gobert showed his sadness by shedding tears on camera. The first person to make fun of him, calling him a “cryer,” was Green. He did not tolerate comparisons with the French giants and hated it when players from across the ocean came to show him how to play a sport invented by Americans. “Stop referring to me in the same sentence as him. We don’t look alike, we don’t have anything in common,” the Californian insisted as soon as we spoke to him about Gobert, who called him a “clown” but never responded with action.
Victor Wembanyama also remained unmoved. But Green is now targeting him. The man was not afraid of anything, not even a man who was 2.24 m tall. The next confrontation between the two promises to be more muscular. Because Green has no intention of changing. “‘You all should know how stupid you are when you try to tell me how to be me.’ If you had advice for your own life, the world would be a much better place and you would be better at your job,” he said.
