OAKLAND – In the same building where his Warriors won three NBA championships in the 2010s, Draymond Green pined for the officiating and play-style of those days during Saturday afternoon’s press availability at Oakland Arena.
“I think the physicality has been taken out of the game, and it’s boring,” Green opined while surrounded by cameras and microphones during NBA All-Star game media day.
Green is perennially among the NBA’s leaders in technical fouls and ejections, and is once again near the top of the list during the 2024-25 season.
His 11 technicals are third in the league, and Green was ejected against Memphis after receiving two techs early in the season.
Green, in his 13th season in the NBA, says veteran players should “get a better whistle” while adding that rookies and younger players need to “earn stripes.”
“The human element has been taken out of it, and I don’t think that makes for a great product,” Green said. “It’s never been an equal opportunity thing. When everything is equal opportunity, it slows things down from a foul perspective. It junks the game up because you have too many people getting calls, and it shouldn’t be that way.”
Green later added, “In any world you go to, you start Year 1 and don’t get something the people in Year 10 get. It’s spread a lot of entitlement, and with that, a lot of disdain from the fans.”
After tearing into officiating, Green wasn’t finished.
The former all-star also panned the current three-point-centric playstyle employed by most teams. The league is averaging a record-high 75 three-point attempts per game.
“It’s very boring. It’s not smart basketball no more,” Green said. “I saw a clip, not too long ago, where Kobe said it was accidental basketball, and he couldn’t have been more right. It’s crazy.”
He longed for the halcyon days of 2018, when the Cavaliers and Warriors played what he considered a more cerebral kind of basketball.
“Every possession is a chess move, and you don’t get that in the NBA today very often,” Green said. “It’s about who can run faster, who can hit more threes. It is no substance, and so I think it’s very boring.”
Lillard’s brief homecoming
Milwaukee Bucks’ Damian Lillard shoots from half-court during the NBA All-Star practice session at Oakland Arena in Oakland, Calif., on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
Oakland native Damian Lillard enjoyed practicing at the place formerly known as Oracle Arena. The Oakland High alum visited his old high school on Friday, and has been a vocal supporter of both his alma mater and his hometown throughout the years.
“Growing up close by here, driving by and looking at the Coliseum and seeing Oracle and how dead it is, when there was so much energy in it when I was a kid with the Raiders, the A’s, the Warriors being here, concerts, AND1 Mixtape tour coming through here, Globetrotters,” Lillard said. “I remember a lot about this parking lot.”
The nine-time All-Star and Bucks guard believed the NBA could have done even more at the place the Warriors called home until the 2020 season. The Celebrity All-Star game was played there on Friday night, and the HBCU Classic between Morehouse and Tuskegee took place on Saturday afternoon.
“One of the first things I asked when I got here was, are they doing Saturday night at Oracle,” Lillard asked. “Just because I would have loved to see that energy be here with the professional sports teams being taken away.”
Jalen Williams hoping to go back to school
Oklahoma City Thunder’s Jalen Williams speaks to the media during the NBA All-Star practice session at Oakland Arena in Oakland, Calif., on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
Lillard and rising stars Amen and Ausar Thompson weren’t the only athletes looking forward to a Bay Area homecoming this weekend.
Oklahoma City forward Jalen Williams spent three seasons at Santa Clara, finishing his career as an all-West Coast Conference selection. Williams, now in his third pro season, is averaging a career-high 21 points per game for arguably the best team in the league.
“It’s really cool, and hopefully I get to go back,” Williams said. “It means a lot for where I started to be where I play in my first All-Star game, so close to school. Hopefully I get to see some of my coaches.”
