Draymond Green's Defense of Kevin Durant Reveals a Hidden NBA Truth

Ever since Kevin Durant announced July 4 that he was leaving the Oklahoma City Thunder for the Golden State Warriors—the same Warriors who had just knocked the Thunder out of the Western Conference Finals in seven games—the criticism has been constant and unyielding.

From that day more than three months ago until now, past and present players have been coming out every couple of days to tsk-tsk Durant's decision: Charles Barkley, Reggie Miller, Damian Lillard, Markieff Morris and Tracy McGrady. 

One salty remark after another.

The popular storyline goes that Durant basically duped the people of Oklahoma City into thinking he was going to stay and then was peer-pressured into bolting for the allure of a team on the brink of greatness.

And Draymond Green reached his breaking point Thursday afternoon. A day after Paul Pierce gave a SiriusXM interview in which he expanded on his memorable July 4 tweet and said, among other things, that today's players are not "as hungry or as competitive as my generation was," Green laid into Pierce after an afternoon practice in Denver:

"Nobody complain when somebody leave Apple and go to Google," Green said, per Anthony Slater of the San Jose Mercury News. "Aren't they in competition with each other? Nobody talk junk about the CEO who leaves Apple and goes to Google. As a basketball player, you are the CEO of a business. You are a business. Kevin Durant is a big business. He is the CEO of that business. So him going to play basketball for a different team, the CEO decided to leave where he was at and go somewhere else.

"But there's so many guys in this league that are so stupid they don't think like that. They don't think business wise. It happens every day in the world. But in basketball it's a problem. Aren't you competitive in your day job if you work for Apple? Don't you want to outdo Google? What's the difference on the basketball court. It's your day job. You want to do what's better for you."

Durant, to his credit, has been as thoughtful and forthcoming during his transition to Bay Area life as anyone in his position could be expected to be, given the pressure he's under and the narrative that quickly coalesced in the wake of his decision. 

So while Durant was clearly peeved earlier this week when comments he made during a Warriors panel discussion at Stanford were taken out of context—"Man, whatever I say is going to be twisted up," he said after practice Tuesday, "so I'm only just going to say how I feel from now on"—he's largely taken everything in stride as the season quickly approaches.

But it's no accident that Green was the one to finally snap. He is the emotional leader of this Warriors team, a role that has served head coach Steve Kerr and the players to great benefit over the past two seasons. When Golden State is down by 10 or 12 at the half, it's Green who makes the locker room speech.

He is the star on this team who will not hesitate to self-sacrifice for the good of another. Sometimes that emotion can manifest itself in an unfortunate (and painful) way, but this is who he is. He's been like this the second he stepped on an NBA court as a second-round pick feeling a mountain-size sleight.

So after months of the Warriors' new star taking one public drubbing after another, from players who had never won a title (Barkley, Miller), never had to make a similar decision (Lillard, Morris) or were themselves the beneficiary of a manufactured superteam (Pierce), it was only natural that Green would so forcefully come to Durant's defense. 

Noah Graham/Getty Images

Thank goodness he did, because what Green said about today's NBA should be a model for how younger players control their own destiny.

After an offseason that saw many such as Lillard, Memphis' Mike Conley and Washington's Bradley Beal sign contracts worth more than what almost every Hall of Famer made in his entire playing career, it's more important than ever that players recognize the power they possess with regard to their future employment.

The emotional attachment still plays a role, yes, but the business aspect is now an integral and inescapable part of how players decide their respective futures. 

Green's comparison of players to tech CEOs was perhaps correct in the sense of "branding" (ugh), but a more apt example centers on the engineers who are in such high demand at these companies. It's true that workers move all the time from Apple to Google to Facebook to Amazon and sometimes back around again to a previous company, and even all of that gets more complicated as you take non-compete clauses and other conditions into account.

But Green's point is valid: Hiring managers and headhunters fight like hell to bring in the best coders and programmers, promising perks and a better quality of life to people with highly specialized skills that are hard to replicate or replace—kind of like elite basketball players.

The other simple reality that so many critics seem to forget?

Durant, as a free agent operating within the bounds of the collective bargaining agreement, was fully within his rights to choose his next employer. Teams, in turn, must do their duty to convince him of their merits.

And yet, all the ire, especially from way over yonder in OKC, seemed focused on Durant (who made an informed decision) and not in the direction of general manager Sam Presti (who has cleverly portrayed Durant's departure as some kind of fait accompli) or team owner Clay Bennett or even Russell Westbrook (who did not attend the Thunder's sit-down meeting with Durant in the Hamptons) for letting him walk.

The Warriors, let's remember, brought along not just Green but Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala, in addition to several team executives.

Durant, ultimately, made a many-layered decision. It was personal, moving to an environment that was unfamiliar and exciting. It was professional, considering the opportunities that awaited him in a new and larger market. It was competitive, since the chances of him winning a title with Golden State are exponentially higher than with OKC.

Sure, Durant could've perhaps been more gracious in saying his final goodbye to the Thunder fans who cheered and loved him for so many years. But this was not a decision he made lightly, and there's been little public defense of his thought process—only a stream of knee-jerk vitriol from a variety of agenda-driven sources.

Noah Graham/Getty Images

I wager that the Warriors will be an even stronger bunch in the wake of Green's comments. Kerr is a coach who wants his players to be happy, and team ownership takes pride in cultivating a workplace that fosters open communication. In the Warriors' continuing hunt to build team chemistry with Durant, this episode may serve to solidify some long-term bonds.

I can only imagine what the team group chat looks like at this very moment.

The bottom line is that the Dubs figure to win a whole lot of games this season. It's no coincidence that Pierce's comments came just a week after Golden State annihilated the Clippers in their preseason home opener at Oracle Arena.

As the losses pile up, the comments from opposing locker rooms may only get more bitter, but the Warriors have to expect that. They've seen a barrage of such talk for months and the season hasn't even begun. And it won't stop (Golden State hopes) until at least mid-June.

There may yet be future opportunities for other Warriors to come to a teammate's defense, be that Durant or someone else, but Green did his job here.

Especially after the events of last June's Finals, when Green's Game 5 suspension arguably cost the Warriors their best chance at repeating as champions, he has now reaffirmed his role on this team, as their best defender, both on and off the court. He's the guy who does what others won't do and says what others won't say. 

In this case, it was exactly what Durant—and the Warriors—needed to hear.

Erik Malinowski is the Golden State Warriors lead writer for B/R. You can follow him on Twitter at @erikmal.