Though NBA players are competitors at heart, it is fair to say that a lot of them treat playing in the league as a job. In fact, even reigning Finals MVP Nikola Jokic once claimed that to him, basketball is a job.
Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green has recently responded to Nikola Jokic’s comments, and admitted that the center is “not lying”. He noted that players are expected to perform in any circumstances, and added that there’s a lot of “bulls**t” that comes with playing in the league.
“I love playing basketball, love to compete but he’s not lying. I hate it,” Green said. “I don’t want to sound like someone who takes it for granted but to Joker’s point, it’s work. And you have to show up to work every day and perform despite what can be going on at work, what can be going on at home, what can be going on in the world. You have to show up and perform and it’s work. There’s so much bulls**t that comes it and the politics but I wouldn’t trade my job for the world…” (1:41:10)
There’s no doubt that ultimately, NBA players are paid to play basketball and produce on the court. With that being said, that doesn’t mean that they can’t love what they do, and have fun on the basketball court.
A Lot Of Players Don’t Love Basketball
There is no doubt that a lot of people don’t love their job, and it seems as though that is the case for NBA players as well. In fact, Patrick Beverley previously claimed that 50% of NBA players don’t love basketball.
“50, and I was being nice… Preparation… Watching film… Most teammates I know who don’t love basketball are the really f*cking good ones. Most skilled. Wildest s*** in the world… You have so much skill, it’s free-flowing. The preparation is different when you have so much skill that you can just show up to the game and get a motherf*cking 30. That might work against other teams who aren’t that good, but you can’t do that in the playoffs.”
Ultimately, if players perform at a high level on the court, then it doesn’t matter whether they truly love basketball or not. The goal is to win, and as long as the team is doing that, other things matter less.
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