Draymond Green, a forward with the Golden State Warriors, is arguably the most controversial player in the NBA today.
Skip Bayless, a sports media commentator, has criticized Green for being a dirty player.
In a recent episode of his podcast, ‘The Draymond Green Show,’ Green criticized Bayless’ sports journalism career.
“Everybody’s skipping past Skip Bayless since Shannon [Sharpe] left him. And he comes out and says he’ll have me eating out the palm of his hands. I’m not coming on your show, Skip.
I’m gonna keep skipping past you just like everybody else skipped on you cause that show is dead,” Green said. “No one wants to hear you talk anymore. In the words of Richard Sherman, I am better than you. I’m better than you at life, I am just better than you.”
During the segment, Draymond Green appeared alongside the NBA championship trophy, his All-NBA Second Team honors, All Defensive First Team honors, as well as a pair of his championship rings. He made sure to taunt Skip Bayless for not having any kind of hardware like that.
Green ended the segment by saying, “We don’t respect you, you need more people.”
Draymond Green’s 2023-24 season mired in controversy
During this past NBA season, Skip Bayless wasn’t the only person who came for Draymond Green. Green was probably recognized more this past year for his on and off the court antics than he was for his actual basketball play.
Green was suspended twice this past year for his role in on the court altercations. The first came back in November during an incident with the Minnesota Timberwolves when Green put Rudy Gobert in a chokehold. The second suspension came in December against the Phoenix Suns when Green appeared to wind up and swing a punch at Jusuf Nurkic’s face, connecting the hit.
Green’s latest incident came during the Western Conference Finals between the Wolves and the Dallas Mavericks. Wolves star Anthony Edwards refused to take part in an interview with Turner Sports due to Green’s appearance on Inside the NBA when he routinely took personal shots at Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns that had nothing to do with the game.
Even with his antics, Draymond Green remains an important part of the Warriors roster. He still has two more guaranteed seasons left on his contract with a player option ahead of the 2026-26 season.
This past year, Green appeared in 55 games for the Warriors at a little over 27 minutes per game. He averaged 8.6 points, 7.2 rebounds, 6.0 assists and 1.0 steals with splits of 49.7 percent shooting from the field, 39.5 percent shooting from the three-point line and 73 percent shooting from the free-throw line.
It’s been a tumultuous past couple of seasons for the Warriors after they won the 2022 title. They failed to qualify for the postseason this past year when they lost in their opening play-in game against the Sacramento Kings. In 2023, they advanced to the second round of the playoffs before falling to the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Semifinals.