{"id":581980,"date":"2026-02-04T14:35:36","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T14:35:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/581980\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T14:35:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T14:35:36","slug":"what-a-f-run-its-been-draymond-green-and-the-warriors-near-the-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/581980\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018What a f\u2014 run it\u2019s been\u2019 \u2014 Draymond Green and the Warriors near the end"},"content":{"rendered":"

Want more ways to catch up on the latest in Bay Area sports? Sign up for the Section 415 email newsletter here<\/a> and subscribe to the \u201cSection 415″ podcast wherever you listen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Draymond Green was not initially scheduled to trudge up the stairs from the locker room to speak at the podium late Tuesday night, but he knew he had to.<\/p>\n

If this was his last night and last game in a Warrior uniform, he was going to finish it off as his fullest, canniest, most honest self. What better way to acknowledge the power and truth of everything the Warriors have experienced in Draymond\u2019s 14 seasons here?<\/p>\n

And even if Draymond isn\u2019t traded by Thursday\u2019s deadline in a package for Giannis Antetokounmpo or anybody else, he had to acknowledge that the end is coming soon, anyway. There\u2019s always an ending. This one is near.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt some point, it\u2019s gonna come to an end, whether that\u2019s a day or two, or a year or two,\u201d Draymond said after the Warriors\u2019 113-94 loss at Chase Center without Stephen Curry. \u201cIt\u2019s gonna come to an end at some point.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve gotta be OK with that. It\u2019s not something that I can hold onto forever because I can\u2019t play basketball forever. It\u2019s gotta come to an end at some point, anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nobody is denying that the Warriors have included Draymond in the Giannis offer \u2014 they need to either put Jimmy Butler or Draymond into the deal for salary-matching purposes, and it\u2019s likely that they\u2019d prefer to keep Butler out of it.<\/p>\n

Nobody can deny it. Because it\u2019s true. Draymond\u2019s name has been discussed in reports for several days, but he said Tuesday that it didn\u2019t really hit him until Steve Kerr checked in with him on Monday.<\/p>\n

And at the podium Tuesday, it\u2019s clear that everything had sunk in. The Warriors have a chance to make the team better and give Curry the best shot at a fifth championship by acquiring Giannis, so they were offering Draymond in the trade.<\/p>\n

And Draymond understood.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a lot of people want to know how I feel about it \u2014 like, am I upset about it? I\u2019m not at all,\u201d Draymond said. \u201cIf that\u2019s what\u2019s best for this organization, that\u2019s what\u2019s best for the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

4 days ago<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Tuesday, Jan. 27<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

If it happens, Draymond wouldn\u2019t be the first foundational dynastic figure to depart \u2014 first it was Bob Myers, then Klay Thompson, and it feels like it\u2019s Draymond\u2019s turn, whether he\u2019s traded this week or not. (Or he could be tied heading out the door with Kerr, whose contract expires in July.)<\/p>\n

Nothing stays the same. Draymond\u2019s place on this team by Curry\u2019s side seemed like it might last forever, but it won\u2019t. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not, like, aww, man, they f\u2014 me over or something like that,\u201d Draymond said. \u201cI don\u2019t really feel that way. If you would\u2019ve told me 13 and a half years ago, \u2018Yo, I\u2019m going to hand you this sheet of paper and you can sign it to be in a place for 13 and a half years, would you sign it?\u2019 And I would\u2019ve signed it faster than you can blink.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo what do I have to sit and worry about? What do I have to be upset about? I\u2019ve been here for 13 and a half years. That\u2019s longer than probably 98% of the NBA players have been in once place. Guy from Saginaw has been in a place for 13 and a half years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know that it ends at 13 and a half. But if it does, what a f\u2014 run it\u2019s been. I\u2019ll take the fine for [the expletive]. What a f\u2014 run it\u2019s been.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond the Giannis talk, the general point has been made and accepted: Draymond will have his jersey retired by this franchise at some point, but, at 35, isn\u2019t good enough anymore to be untouchable in any potential trade and the Warriors aren\u2019t good enough anymore to ignore that. (His outbursts and ejections add to the unbalance of this.)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no shame to be put into an offer that would bring back a two-time MVP in his prime, but some kind of line seems to have been crossed over the past few weeks after the loss of Butler to an ACL tear.<\/p>\n

The Warriors need more talent. And if the podium minutes were a booming reminder of Draymond\u2019s force and will, the game was a reminder of why this is happening \u2014 Draymond checked out with 4:36 left in the game, the Warriors trailing 103-84. He was -27 in 25 minutes.<\/p>\n

There will be changes. That much was palpable around the Warriors on Tuesday; after the game a few players were half-jokingly hugging each other in case they were traded.<\/p>\n

Draymond, though, said he hasn\u2019t started saying his farewells.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something I\u2019ve never dealt with before so I don\u2019t really have some guidebook or manual for how it should be,\u201d Draymond said. \u201cSo yeah, if there\u2019s a point where I need to say goodbye, I\u2019ll say goodbye.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know. It is business as usual. Come out, play, go home, come back tomorrow, fly, maybe, play Thursday, maybe, maybe not. We\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TwoGreen and Curry have been teammates since Golden State selected Green in the 2012 NBA Draft. | Source: Morgan Ellis\/The Standard<\/p>\n

So will the Bucks take the Warriors\u2019 offer of Draymond, Jonathan Kuminga, maybe another player or two, plus up to four future first-round picks and probably a couple of swaps, too?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the most direct offer: If the Bucks like Kuminga, no other competing team\u2019s offer has the combination of young talent and accumulation of draft picks. But Milwaukee could also wait until the summer, when other teams will have more picks to offer.<\/p>\n

A Warriors source indicated earlier on Tuesday that they don\u2019t know what Milwaukee really wants to do \u2014 and that the Warriors had to start evaluating other possible trades to help the team now.<\/p>\n

But any other trade might sacrifice pieces that the Warriors could use in a Giannis offer in the summer. The only pressure the Warriors could theoretically put on Milwaukee right now is not a huge one: If you don\u2019t get Kuminga now, we might move him for somebody else by Thursday.<\/p>\n

Which probably wouldn\u2019t rank among the top 50 pressure points facing the Bucks in the Giannis situation.<\/p>\n

Nobody but the Bucks know what they\u2019re going to do by Thursday, the summer, or whenever. The Warriors and Draymond, though, seem to be coming to their own resolution.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the beginning of the end for this fascinating, controversial, and incredibly successful relationship. It\u2019s more like the middle of the end.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have so much gratitude for where I am in my career, the run that I\u2019ve been on here,\u201d Draymond said. \u201cI don\u2019t know that it ends or what-not. I don\u2019t. We\u2019ll all see. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut if it does, it does. All good things must come to an end at some point.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Warriors will never have any player or personality like Draymond Green ever again. And if anybody forgets, just get a clip from the 15 minutes he sat at a podium on Tuesday. It\u2019s all there. If it was the last night of his monumental Warriors career, he met that moment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Want more ways to catch up on the latest in Bay Area sports? Sign up for the Section…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,200,164,6,66,932],"class_list":{"0":"post-581980","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-draymond-green","10":"tag-golden-state-warriors","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-steph-curry"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116012865437223330","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}