Draymond Green refreshing in world of buttoned-down athletes

Sam Amick | USA TODAY Sports

OAKLAND -- The "Splash Brothers" were at the winner's podium at Oracle Arena Monday night, when Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson discussed the Golden State Warriors' Game 2 win against the New Orleans Pelicans on the media main-stage for all the world to see.

But inside the Warriors' locker room, a scene unfolded at that same time which has long since become the norm in these parts: Draymond Green, the 25-year-old forward who has gone from second-round pick to starter to prospective max-contract player in these past few seasons, was still surrounded by nearly a dozen reporters who knew better than to leave.

Curry and Thompson may have had the sexier stat line that night, but Green's locker – as always – was the place to go for the most authentic and entertaining insight. The back and forth was old-school in every way, local media and national writers alike learning about everything from his daunting task of slowing Anthony Davis to the root of his trash-talking ways to the backstory on his early-season promotion that had everything to do with their success.

At a time when so many NBA stars are pushing back against the locker room dynamic between players and reporters, and with first-year National Basketball Players Association executive director Michele Roberts seeming to support that stance at every turn, Green offers a refreshing reminder of how good it can be when it's done right. Perfect storms like this are few and far between, but the combination of player personality, mutual respect and – last but certainly not least – subject relevancy make him the perfect case study in this nuanced debate.

For all the changes in the media landscape that have come with this generation, nothing has changed about the value of objective storytelling in sports. The masses still find these athletes as fascinating as ever, and the truth that's so often lost on those who don't do this for a living is that it's tough to humanize a player from 30,000 feet. Even the 10 or 20 feet that separates the subject in a podium atmosphere changes the feel of it all, if only because sincerity is tougher to come by when it's spotlights and camera lenses staring at you rather than an inquisitive set of eyes.

As Green sat at his locker surrounded by curious parties – his sore ankle that rolled twice in the first half buried in the ice bucket, wraps around his weary legs – he spent nearly 20 minutes shedding light on his individual story and that of this Warriors team that the masses seem to find so compelling. The topic du jour (again) was Green's mother, Mary Babers-Green, who has a hilarious habit of tweeting during Warriors games with the same kind of filter-less perspective that Draymond takes so much pride in.

Babers-Green, a school security guard who raised Draymond with his father in Saginaw, Michigan, went too far on Twitter recently when learning that a Cleveland-based reporter didn't give her boy a vote for the NBA's All-Defensive teams ( "Tell him to jump in the lake with weights!" she wrote). Her timeline is typically harmless humor, though, with Babers-Green providing her own unique perspective that offers another window into Draymond's world. In something of a recent ritual, the reporters who routinely cover the Warriors will begin their postgame chats by updating Draymond on his mother's social media antics of the evening.

"She just texted me (after Game 2)," said Green, who has five siblings. "She said, 'Hey, way to get it done. I had fun on Twitter tonight … Nothing crazy, but I had fun with it, I'm famous.' She even gave it a hashtag, #ImFamous … Listen man, y'all are seeing what I've dealt with my entire life. And everybody wonders why I talk junk. She's great. That's where I get my competitive nature from."

The hoops inspiration in the family, he would go on to explain, came from his aunt. Annette Babers was a basketball star on the same Michigan State campus where Green spent four years making his name.

"She's the one I'm better than," Green said with a grin as he channeled his mother's spirit.

When it comes to the NBA and how the media covers it, irresponsible speculation often sprouts from a lack of understanding. To cite one example, the alleged rift between Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook in Oklahoma City was a popular storyline years ago until the two of them took the time to explain the true (and sometimes complicated) nature of their close relationship. Ironically, it's those two stars who have made all the recent headlines when it comes to the way media works in the NBA.

None of which is to say that there's no hope here. To wit: the Professional Basketball Writers Association will be announcing the winner of the Magic Johnson award on Wednesday, with Curry, Pau Gasol, Manu Ginobili, LeBron James and Damian Lillard all nominated as players who best combine excellence on the court with cooperation with the media and fans. There are plenty of players, PR folks, agents and the like who seem to get it, and an increasing number who just simply don't.

But the invisible walls that sometimes exist between the players and the media do nothing to help, and the end result is always far different when people like Green see the value in truly engaging. Near the end of his latest media session, he agreed to help dissect the sticky situation that led to his pivotal promotion into the starting lineup.

First-year coach Steve Kerr initially gave Green the same reserve role that he held under former coach Mark Jackson, but Green became a starter when former All-Star David Lee went down with a hamstring problem just before the regular season. The surprising part, both then and now, is that Kerr resisted the urge to adhere to NBA convention when Lee returned in mid-December: Green stayed in the starting lineup, and Lee lost his job, in essence, because of the injury. Green, as always, was willing to share his candid view of it all.

"It meant a lot," he said of Kerr's decision. "It showed that his only agenda was winning … It's no disrespect to David – the guy has been an All-Star, and to stick with what we'd been winning with? I'm not saying David wouldn't have filled back in and we wouldn't have kept winning, but it was proven that we were winning. (Kerr's move) meant a lot to me. It just showed everyone that his only agenda was winning.

"(What Kerr did) is not normal. You won't see it much. But guys accepted their role. David could've been an (expletive) about it and been a cancer. But he accepted his role and continued to try to help me … I think he's one of my biggest fans when I'm doing well, and vice versa. And it's always been that way. It will always be that way."

By the time Green finally headed for the hallway, the Splash Brothers had been replaced by Davis and Norris Cole on the podium and the A.M. hours were coming quick. New stories would surely come with the new day, and with that the hope that Green's open ways might never go away.