Green's mom lives the dream with her son via Twitter

When Mary Babers-Green visits her son in the San Francisco Bay Area, she does so with much trepidation — and with her eyes trained squarely on the floor of the vehicle every time they cross a bridge.

"Those are some long bridges," said Babers-Green, better known as the mother of Draymond Green. "I don't like a lot of water. I've got a phobia."

For one thing, she was told as a child that California will some day endure an earthquake that will leave it submerged by the Pacific. That stuck with her.

So the visits are occasional and she has enjoyed most of the rise of her son — a former Michigan State star and current do-it-all for the Golden State Warriors — from her couch in Saginaw, with her Twitter account humming.

Green is about to be pursued, and paid, and that brings up a question: Would Babers-Green prefer to see her son playing 70 miles away next season, wearing a Detroit Pistons uniform?

"I want him to stay in the place that will be the most productive for his career, and I want what makes him happy," she said. "The Bay loves Dray, and Dray loves the Bay. I've got NBA TV."

She also has a house Green bought her after signing with the Warriors as a second-round pick in 2012, but she has her own life, too. She has no plans to give up her job as a campus patrol officer for Saginaw Public Schools, even if Green gets the roughly $15 million a year as a restricted free agent that many are projecting.

"That's Draymond's life," said Babers-Green, whose other children, Torrian and LaToya, live nearby. "Anything he does for me is a gift. And it's not something I expect."

She just wants to enjoy watching her son living his dream, and tweet about it — as he wouldn't let her do when he was playing for Tom Izzo and the Spartans. And when it comes to a Mother's Day gift, answer these questions: Did the Warriors win Game 3 on Saturday night at Memphis? Did Green avoid early foul trouble?

Golden State lost to the Grizzlies, 99-89, to fall behind in the series two games to one. But Babers-Green will be ready for Monday's Game 4. And the media world will be ready for her tweets.

They have been featured during this playoff run on ESPN and TNT's "Inside the NBA," with Charles Barkley praising "Mama Green" on the show after a series of her posts during the Warriors' comeback from a 20-point deficit to win at New Orleans on April 23.

Among her tweets, with New Orleans building its huge lead and Golden State fans fretting, was: "It's a 7 game series LAST I CHECKED! Fair weather FANS make me SICK!"

And that sums up the outspoken nature Green inherited from Babers-Green.

"Y'all got this woman thinking she is famous," Green told the Bay Area News Group recently when asked about her tweets, adding of that willingness to confront: "It's definitely something that runs throughout our family."

As the Warriors lost Game 2 at home to the Grizzlies on Wednesday, Babers-Green got into it with Memphis fans who thought Green intentionally tried to hurt Memphis guard Mike Conley Jr., and she scolded some Warriors fans as well. She said she blocked about 200 people from her account in the past week alone — and to be clear, she doesn't say everything she'd like to say.

She said she has received countless racist, lewd and otherwise inappropriate comments from adversaries on the social media website. Sometimes, she'd like to get raw, too. That is, beyond the time or two she invited someone to dive off one of those bridges with an anchor as a necklace.

"There are days I type out stuff and erase them 10 times," she said. "I'll be about to act out, but I respect myself and the Warriors' organization and what they've done for my son too much. I wouldn't dare."

Besides, this is supposed to be fun. And it usually is. Babers-Green loves the information she gets from Twitter during games that she can't get on TV.

She watches alone at home — no one else wants to be around her yelling, she said — with the TV on silent, following the conversation and the play-by-play online. Babers-Green may be more surprised by her own embrace of the pro game than by her son's success in it.

"I love college basketball — the work, the sweat, the tears," she said. "I watch the NBA and I sometimes question if these guys like the game at all, you know? …

"I always thought Draymond could play in the NBA. Of course there are better players, but when you love something so much, you will do everything for it. And that's Draymond and basketball."

And now a championship is within reach, and then a monster contract.

But things shouldn't change much, other than Green moving out of the Emeryville apartment he found as a rookie and buying a home. And the continued realization of what Babers-Green loves to tell him when they're joking around.

"You know I'm gonna be famous, right?"

Contact Joe Rexrode: jrexrode@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @joerexrode. Check out his MSU blog at freep.com/heyjoe.