Warriors' Draymond Green Discusses Being Left Off USA Player Pool for 2024 Olympics

Draymond Green helped lead Team USA to the gold medal in the 2016 and 2020 Olympics, but he won't have a chance at a third in the 2024 Paris Games.

He also wishes the situation was handled a bit differently.

Team USA revealed its 41-player selection pool on Tuesday, and the Golden State Warriors forward was not included. What's more, USA Basketball executive director Grant Hill said that Green's suspensions this season played a role in such a decision.

"His contributions have been significant, and he is a real part of the legacy of this organization for his excellence," Hill said, per ESPN's Brian Windhorst. "But I think just in lieu of sort of what's transpired this year, we made a decision to not have [Green] on this list with this particular point in time with the process."

Green addressed Hill's comments during the latest episode of The Draymond Green Show (19:10 mark).

"I wish that he would have just said that to me, especially if you're going to say that publicly," Green said. "It hurt me a little bit from a fan standpoint as well. I'm a big fan of Grant Hill."

Green also expressed gratitude for getting the opportunity to play in multiple Olympics and represent his country and seemed to understand how difficult it would be for him to crack the roster at this point of his career given other frontcourt options such as Joel Embiid, Anthony Davis and Bam Adebayo.

"If I'm not good enough for that roster, just say I'm not good enough," he said.

Yet Hill pointed to Green's multiple incidents this season as justification for the decision.

Green was suspended five games for putting Minnesota Timberwolves big man Rudy Gobert in a chokehold and then later suspended indefinitely for hitting Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nurkić. The suspension ended up being 12 games, and he missed four additional ones as he ramped up for a return.

"We all understand and certainly have great respect and sensitivity to this particular period in his career, and he's working through some things both on and off the court," Hill said. "And so we at USA Basketball wanted to support him on his journey and we just didn't feel that playing over the summer gives him the best opportunity to do what he needs to do."

Despite how this situation unfolded, Green will always be a part of Team USA history after winning gold in Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.