GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 29, 2025

Draymond Green

Media Conference

DRAYMOND GREEN: (Doning glasses that say BOOM).

Q. Draymond, how do you go through this day when you don't know when Jonathan is coming, you have guys coming in, does it feel unsettled or does it feel okay?

DRAYMOND GREEN: I think any time, I should take these off.

I think any time a teammate not here, it sucks, and obviously not having multiple here due to the situation, it's unfortunate because I think Media Day, it marks the start of something. You know, it marks the start of another NBA season. For me, this is my 14th one. Like it never gets old.

It's kind of that stamp of like, all right, it's about to get real. So I think everyone deserves the opportunity to feel that, including him. You know, like he'll look back on this and I'll walk in and you know, you're like, what Media Day is this for you and you always have that little asterisk in your mind, like, oh, I missed one.

I think it sucks for all those guys involved, including JK. You don't get the opportunity to start your thing how you normally start your thing.

And saying that, we all understand the situation. He's got to do what he's got to do for himself. This is a business and I think that's what you always have to understand. It's unfortunate when the business side get in front of things, but nevertheless it is a business and you can't ignore that side of things.

Hopefully none of them miss too much time and they will be here pretty soon, including him. We want him here. Yeah, I think for anyone involved, like it doesn't feel good. Like you want to get in your rhythm and get in your flow and kind of do your thing. I feel for all those guys involved, including JK.

Q. How will this not be a distraction?

DRAYMOND GREEN: Well, I don't think anyone's winning a championship in the first few days of practice. It would be a distraction if we don't have as many guys and we'll be tired as hell going through practice. That will be a distraction and that will suck because usually as a vet, you can slide to the back and go slide to the back and let them get a couple more reps. You don't get that privilege. That will suck.

But as far as it being a distraction, I don't expect this to go on too much longer. But, like, you have injuries during the season. You must go on with the guys that you have. You have different situations. People have kids. People do this thing. That thing happens. Family members get sick. You get sick.

Like just different things happen throughout the season and you must go on. It's no different right now.

Q. You obviously know Jonathan. You talked to him. Do you think he still wants to be here?

DRAYMOND GREEN: I think anyone should want to be in the franchise that they started in.

So do I think he still wants to be here? Yeah, I do think he still wants to be here, and he said that to me, that he still wants to be here. When you're still with the franchise that drafted you, I don't care what's happened. You don't just throw that in the middle of the ring and say, hey, somebody else going to take it.

Because you never get it back once you move on to the next franchise. I'm thankful I'm going into year 14 with the same, and never had to experience that, but I've seen people go through it and it's never the same. I know this business. It will never be the same.

So I know he still wants to be here and I think anyone should still want to be with the franchise that drafted him if you can, because once you leave that place it's different.

Q. If you make the all-defensive team this year, your tenth selection of your career, one of six years in league history to accomplish that feat, what would that milestone mean to you?

DRAYMOND GREEN: It would mean the world to me. That's my motivation, to go and try to make another all-defensive team and join that list. It's an amazing list. All first-ballot Hall of Famers.

To try to put myself, my name in the hat with those guys, like any time you can put your name next to guys like -- you're talking Kobe, Tim, you know, like -- there it is, RR. Those names. And I can put my little name next to that? That -- I mean, that would be a dream come true.

So that is definitely a motivating factor for me this year for sure.

Q. Last year you guys went 23-7 and then seven-game series and the playoffs. How much of a grind was that and how much did you feel it, and knowing you've now got 82 with the team, is that a concern? Like maybe wearing you guys down too soon or how do you preserve yourself for the playoffs?

DRAYMOND GREEN: I think, man, in all honesty it was crazy. We were playing playoff basketball for three and a half months, and that's tough to do (counting) plus the playoff basketball we played. That's just hard for anybody. I don't care if you are 37 or 27. You've got to play playoff basketball that long, it's tough. And we had to. We had no other choice. We wanted to give ourselves an opportunity to win a championship. We did that. I think it caught up to us in the end.

I'm actually happy to have an 82-game season and not a 35-game season because now you can go about the season the right way. We don't dig ourselves that huge hole and we're not playing playoff basketball for three and a half months.

So this gives us an opportunity to not dig ourselves in a ditch and then try to fight and claw our way back out, and that's how you manage an 82-game schedule. You do what you've got to do. You take care of business and then you allow yourself to get through the season however it is you need to get through the season.

But when you have to play through injuries and play through sickness and play through this thing and that thing, because every game matters, in February? That's a lot to ask. Like I said, I don't care how old the team is, that's a lot to ask.

And so we know that. Like I said, I think it definitely caught up to us at the end. But I worry very little about an 82-game season because it gives us an opportunity to now have our team set and go about the season the right way and give ourselves the grace and cushion that you need in order to be successful in the end.

Q. Steve said in exit interviews, that, one, you're going to play a little bit less center; maybe more power forward. For you, what is the difference on your body between playing center and playing power forward at this stage of your career?

DRAYMOND GREEN: When you're at center, you're involved in every single play because you're anchoring the defense. You are the last line of everything. So there is no break. Like you are at the forefront of everything. That can be a lot at times.

I'm never one that's going to turn the opportunity down because if you turn the opportunity down, you maybe turn the opportunity of minutes down, and I still love to play this game and compete and help my team win.

In an ideal world I would love to play more four. That's my natural position. That's how I became who I've become at that position. But nothing's changed about me at this point. I will always do -- be willing to do whatever the team needs me to do and whatever shoe that I need to wear, if it fits, I'm going to wear it.

And so in an ideal world, yeah, I'll play more four. Haven't -- am I allowed to say? Theoretically, having Al Horford can help with that. Yeah. It's tough.

But playing in the NBA is tough. Living every day life for a lot of people is tough. So I'll take my tough.

Q. How much have you, Steph and Jimmy talked about the opportunity in front of you to play together from the start of the season, as opposed to, as you said last year, it was kind of on the fly? And related question, what tone did Jimmy set with the mini camp or whatever you want to call it in San Diego?

DRAYMOND GREEN: I think we are all looking forward to it. Just the opportunity to start the beginning, to have a training camp together. You know, you can implement more things. You can build an identity from the beginning. Defensive terminology and all the things that you build starting in training camp, we're able to do that this year.

And so we're really looking forward to that opportunity. I mean, the mini-camp in San Diego was great, No. 1, just to be with the guys, spend some time together. Jimmy was an incredible host. He has the wine cellar of an emperor. It's amazing. And just setting the tone and getting everybody together and what it is that we are setting out to do, and that kind of marks the beginning of it.

So you can always look back to that experience of times get hard on the court and you can look back to those times of, man, when we were in San Diego and we were doing this and bonding like that, and you draw from those moments. So that was a huge moment for this team. We had a great time together. We accomplished what we needed to accomplish. Everybody got out healthy. It was really good for us.

Q. (No microphone.)

DRAYMOND GREEN: I think last year we were just kind of making it work, doing whatever we could do to make it work. This year you get a chance to see what's best. I think -- I just think that will take us much, much further than just finding one thing that works, and all right, we just going to do this, as opposed you build towards that, you try things that don't would -- you move on.

You try this one thing and it's working and you may try the next thing and, oh, that works, too, and now we got two things that work.

So I don't know that the -- I do think the identity will be different than last year because I think every team's identity changed year-to-year. It's never really the same. But like I said, I think we just got a chance to build and grow that, as opposed to doing whatever we need to do from the start to, like, win.

Like can't try anything because you don't have the room to try.

Q. Veterans always say that as you get to your mid-30s in the NBA, you realize your body ain't the same as it was when you were 22 or whatever and you make up for it mentally and other ways. With what you've been through physically in your career, how do you make up for what your body can't do now that it could do when you were 22? How do you balance that?

DRAYMOND GREEN: I think, ironically, at 22, there was some things that my body couldn't do that I can do now because it's just all the work you put in and the things that you learn and the strengthening that you do, and so, you know, I think there's a little give and take there.

But, you know, I'm always confident that I can win mentally. That's what you rely more on, when you realize, oh, man, I can't quite do that thing.

But if I'm honest with you, I don't think I've reached a point to where my body can't do it. I haven't quite had that moment where it's like, my eyes were bigger than my heart or my goals or my legs. Like I saw it and I couldn't quite get there. I haven't really experienced that yet. So I'm going to knock on some wood right now and hope it don't come this year.

But I feel great. Am I the same person that I was at 27? No. And thank God I'm not. I've learned a lot since 27.

So you know, there's things that change but you know, you decrease in one area, you've got to grow in another. I think that's the constant challenge of what keeps you going and keeps you striving to do it again and again and again.

Q. I know you said Jonathan has voiced to you that he wants to be back and obviously some of the boiling points of these negotiations have been on trades, them seeking signing trades, y'all trying to sign him to contracts that seem pretty obvious to potentially use him as a trade piece. How do you view his future here and what he can still be within this franchise, especially knowing what some of what's going on?

DRAYMOND GREEN: We play in a game that's covered by media 24/7 and when you're in something that's covered 24/7, it's not always accurate, and B, it doesn't always play out even the way people think it's going to play out.

And so what can he still be here? Exactly what he set out to be here. Because he has -- I know he certainly has the full support of his teammates to be that. And I don't think this franchise or organization would still be trying to -- doing what they are trying to do if they didn't believe that.

And so, I saw Kevon Looney fourth-year option get declined and he spent ten years here. So contract negotiations are never pretty. My first contract negotiation I thought I was about to get a contract and they told me no. And I had to reach out to another team.

And then they showed interest and got the contract done. Two years ago, I thought it was over, I thought I was out of here, and here I am going into year 14.

So just because a contract negotiation didn't go beautifully does not mean it's the end of the road, and a contract negotiation that went beautifully don't mean it's the beginning. It could be the end. I take every 6day for what it's worth in this league.

That's what I try to tell my young guys. That's my message to Jonathan. A contract negotiation is a contract negotiation for a reason. It's one side trying to get the better of the other side, and when you're trying to do that, just like in a basketball game, tempers flare. Things get heated. Sometimes people get kicked out of the room. Sometimes people walk back in the room. That's just how it goes.

This isn't the first contract negotiation that's went longer than everybody expected and that went different than the team wanted it to go or much different than the player wanted it to go. It ain't the first one and it's by far not the last one. We will see this over and over again in this league, because ultimately, it's a business, and you're trying to put your business in the best position to be successful.

We are individuals that when you go to the negotiation table, you don't go to the negotiation table with the team. You go to the negotiation table with your team, by yourself. Meaning, you've got to try and do what's best for you, and that's what Jonathan is doing and that's what he deserves to do.

You work your tail off to get to the NBA, you earn the right to go negotiate. If he didn't earn the right to go negotiate, they still wouldn't be negotiating with him. And he wouldn't be negotiating with them.

These things happen. You move on from them. He signed a contract, come out and played great. Everybody will forget and move on. That's the world we live in.

Yeah, that's kind of my take on it.