Draymond Green has called out what he sees as a double-standard when it comes to players who request trades versus teams who sit players in order to trade them.
Green pulled no punches as he delivered a three-minute monologue during Monday night’s media availability following the Golden State Warriors’ 129-98 win against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“I would like to talk about something that’s really bothering me, and it’s the treatment of players in this league,” Green said. “To watch Andre Drummond before the game sit on the sideline and then go to the back and come out in street clothes because the team was going to him, it’s bullshit.”
Green then used James Harden’s recent trade demand to elaborate.
“When James Harden asked for a trade…he was castrated for wanting to go to a different team and everybody destroyed that man. And yet a team can come out and say, ‘Oh, we wanna trade a guy’ and then that guy has to go sit and if he doesn’t stay professional, then he’s a cancer, and he’s not good in someone’s locker room, and he’s the issue.
“At some point, as players we need to be treated with the same respect and have the same rights that the teams have. Because as a player, you’re the worst person in the world when you want a different situation. But a team can say they’re trading you and that man is to stay in shape, he is to stay professional, and if not, his career is on the line.”
Green also used Anthony Davis as an example, pointing to Davis being fined $50,000 for making a public trade request in January 2019, despite teams publicly discussing trades all the time without consequence.
“Then when Kyrie Irving says, ‘My mental health is off’… do you not think that affects someone mentally?” Green continued. “It goes along the same lines of when everyone wants to say, ‘That young guy can’t figure it out’. But no one wants to say ‘the organisation can’t figure it out’.”