Draymond Green continues to make headlines.
With his mouth.
This time he took a shot at Charles Barkley.
Appearing in place of Shaquille O’Neal on the “Inside the NBA” set Wednesday night, Green made more headlines.
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“Sports are for young people,” Barkley said. “You hope to have a great long career, but nobody wins when they’re 37, 38.”
Green then calmly responded, “Yeah, I mean I think the goal is just to not look like you in a Houston Rockets uniform, is ultimately the goal for us.”
Green was referring to his aging Golden State Warriors team starring Steph Curry and himself.
“We’re always going to try to compete,” said Green, who won four NBA titles alongside Curry and Klay Thompson with the Warriors. “When you win championships, the goal will always be to try to reach that level. Can we get back to that level? Listen, Jimmy [Butler’s] gonna miss a lot of next year [with a torn ACL], Moses [Moody’s] gonna miss a lot of next year. That’s $70 million, $75 million of, what, a $160 million payroll. So it’s gonna be tough, but make no mistake, the goal will always be to compete at a championship standard level.”
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After spending eight years with the Philadelphia 76ers Barkley played four years for the Phoenix Suns and then ended his career with four years with the Houston Rockets.
Barkley did not seem upset with Green’s comment, but Green took some heat on X/Twitter.
In his first year in Houston in 1996-97, Barkley helped lead the Rockets to the Western Conference Finals, averaging 17.9 points, 12 rebounds and 3.4 during that playoff run.
“Draymond Green could never do this,” one person commented.
Another poster wrote: “Barkley’s final year in Houston, the Rockets went 34-48. He is saying they don’t want to go out being a terrible team like how Chuck went out in Houston.”
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Green is 36, Curry 38. This year the Warriors went 37-45 and lost to the Suns in the Play-In Tournament.
With their aging core facing an uncertain future, head coach Steve Kerr is reportedly weighing whether or not to return next season.
Green has also publicly questioned whether Kerr “hindered me” offensively during his career.
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“As much as he’s done for me in basketball, a part of me thinks he’s hindered me in my career and what I could have become,” Green said in a recent episode of “The Draymond Green Show.” “But what he’s also helped me become. Like you got to take the good with the bad, man.”
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That led to another verbal spat with former NBA player Austin Rivers, who called Green “the luckiest basketball player ever.”
“You were the luckiest basketball player I think I’ve ever seen,” Rivers said on “The Dan Patrick Show. “You were drafted to a franchise with a Hall of Fame front office, Hall of Fame coach, the greatest shooter of all time and perhaps a top five player of all time. Not to mention one of the most lethal scorers of all time and arguably a top 10 player of all time, Kevin Durant, the same guy you chased off because you talk too much. Steve Kerr made your career. How dare you?”
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