Draymond Green’s difficult moment that made him think about retiring from the NBA: “It was too much for me”

The return of Draymond Green at the NBA courts it’s a matter of hours. The power forward of Warriors of the Golden State will play again later a 12-game suspension and almost a month that, as the player revealed, he was about to conclude his professional career in the NBA.

In the latest episode of his podcast The Draymond Green Showpublished Monday, the four-time Warriors champion recounted a conversation he had with NBA commissioner Adam Silver after the league suspended him indefinitely. after being ejected from a game against the Phoenix Sunson December 12, for hitting Bosnian center Jusuf Nurkic.

“I said: “Adam, this is too much for me. This is too much. He’s all getting too much for me and I’m leaving.”. And Adam told me: “You’re making a very hasty decision and I won’t let you.”, revealed the 33-year-old player, trained at Michigan State University and with 11 seasons of experience in the most competitive basketball league on the planet.

Green said yes “a long and excellent conversation” with Silver, who had left “very helpful” for him and this had helped him reconsider his idea of ​​leaving high performance sports. “I’m very grateful to play in a league with a commissioner like him, who cares more about helping you than hurting you or punishing you. He counts the players more.”the basketball player mused.

Although he apologized to Nurkic after his ejection in the game against the Suns (the second suffered this season and the 18th of his career) and maintained that he had not intended to hit his opponent, Green had to participate, at the direction of NBA authorities, in counseling sessions to control his bouts of anger.. Even though the league lifted the suspension last Saturday, the forward continues to participate in those sessions.

“During the period of his suspension, which began on December 13 and caused him to miss 12 games, Green completed steps that demonstrated his commitment to changing his behavior to the standards expected by NBA players”said Joe Dumars, the league’s executive vice president in charge of basketball operations.

The inmate from the Golden State assured that these weeks have been painful and explained what impact this situation had not only on him, but on his family. “I have a wife, I have children, I have parents, I have grandparents, brothers, friends that I have embarrassed and this hurts me. My mother received death threats. “I have two children who are of school age and have to go to school.”he detailed.

Green resumed his team’s practice on Sunday and He is expected to play again on Wednesday, when the Warriors host the New Orleans Pelicans at the Chase Center in San Francisco. His return could be very useful for a team that is experiencing a very weak period: it is 12th in the Western Conference with a meager record of 17 wins and 19 losses.

Even though Golden State missed one of its numbers, coach Steve Kerr did not dwell on the damage caused by Green’s absence in these 12 games, but preferred to underline the importance of the counseling sessions in which the player participated during his disqualification.

“This was not a sprained ankle, this was not a sprained knee. This is a topic Draymond is trying to get help with. So space was important to him and to us,” Kerr stressed last week.