Draymond Green spoke on Inside The NBA’s panel ahead of the 2025 NBA All-Star game. When talking about the new-look Golden State Warriors thanks to the trade for Jimmy Butler, Green mentioned what exactly went wrong for the Warriors early in the season. He credited Butler for helping bring back a certain belief in the locker room and said that the Warriors would now go on to win the NBA championship.
“I think that we were kind of headed in the wrong direction, thinking we figured it out and never figuring it out throughout the course of this year. Since he’s been here, we’ve walked into every game thinking and believing we’re going to win that game. And that goes a long way in this league.”
“When you walk in the game like, ‘Aw man, we’re probably going to lose this game,’ it’s not good. He’s brought back that belief, and I think we’re going to win the championship.”
It is good to see Draymond Green and the Golden State Warriors feeling confident about their chances once again. They were struggling quite a bit this season, squandering their strong 12-3 start to the season to end up with a 25-25 record before they pulled off the trade for Jimmy Butler.
Butler’s impact on the team has been immediate, as the Warriors have gone 3-1 in his first four games with the squad. However, the former All-Star believes they should have won four straight, noting that it made him sick to his stomach that he and the team blew the chance to get an easy chance to win against the Mavericks.
Butler has been strong since coming to the Warriors, averaging 21.3 points, 7.0 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 1.3 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game while shooting 44.6% from the field, 14.3% from beyond the arc, and 85.0% from the free-throw line.
Draymond Green Criticizes New All-Star Format
During the same pre-game panel, Draymond Green also spoke about the new All-Star format and the problems he has with it. He noted that the rising stars getting to play in the All-Star game due to a new format rather than earning their stripes during the regular season. Green believes that this serves to devalue and delegitimize the NBA All-Star game.
“Some team that no one wants to see. I had to work so hard to play on Sunday night of All-Star weekend. And because ratings are down, because the game is bad, we’re bringing in Rising Stars. That’s not a fix. I never played in the Rising Stars game in my first two years I didn’t touch that game. And these guys get to touch the All-Star floor? On Sunday night?”
“In America, the president has Air Force One. They have several of those planes, it’s just Air Force One when the president flies. You have the court, you have an event, when All-Stars are on the court, now it’s the All-Star court. Those guys did not make the All-Star team. To be playing in the All-Star game when you didn’t make the All-Star team is absurd.”
Green is perhaps the first player in the NBA to publicly criticize the new All-Star format, especially on NBA-related programming. But he does make a point, as the Rising Stars game was initially set to highlight and showcase some of the young talent that were making waves in the NBA.
To make the Rising Stars squad a part of the All-Star game, even if it is for a tournament, makes their squad look bad while also making the title of All-Star a little less valuable.
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