Draymond Green Discusses Mark Cuban, White House Visit, Racism

Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green spoke at Harvard on Thursday and addressed a number of issues, including whether the NBA should eliminate the word "owner," Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and President Donald Trump. 

"I understand the difference between owning equity," he said, per Mark Medina of the Mercury News. "One particular owner (Mark Cuban) said I didn't understand equity. I understand owning a trademark and owning a business."

Medina noted Green said "that's different than owning a group of people."

Medina shared more of Green's comments: "When you look at Mark Cuban, for instance, with the whole equity thing, we can all own equity and that's fine. But Mark Cuban would never know or understand how it feels for me, a young black man and turn on the TV and see what happened in Charlottesville."

Green also provided his reaction to people who say "stick to sports" instead of speaking about politics, per Medina: "That’s funny because I see everyone thinks they can speak basketball."

Chris Haynes of ESPN passed along more of Green's thoughts on eliminating "owner" from the league's vernacular:

As for Cuban's involvement, the issue arose from an Instagram post Green made after Houston Texans owner Bob McNair said the NFL "can't have inmates running the prison" in response to players protesting racial inequality and police brutality by kneeling during the national anthem, per Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com.

Green suggested the use of the word chairman instead of owner:

Cuban took umbrage with that, saying "For him to try to turn it into something it's not is wrong," per MacMahon. "He owes the NBA an apology."

Green also addressed Trump's decision to withdraw his team's championship invitation to the White House and shed light on what may have happened if the Warriors attended:

"

Draymond Green said Warriors' visit to White House "definitely wouldn't have been a typical White House visit" if Donald Trump did not withdraw invitation. pic.twitter.com/zZGub7EFcx

— Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) November 16, 2017"

Trump withdrew the invitation via his preferred method of communication, tweeting "Going to the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team. Stephen Curry is hesitating, therefore invitation is withdrawn!"

The head-turning tweet drew a number of reactions, especially since it wasn't even a sure thing the Warriors were going to visit Trump. Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James responded on Twitter after the withdrawal, calling Trump a "bum" and noting Curry already said he wasn't going to attend.

Medina provided Curry's response where he said the tweet "cemented" how he felt about the issue and whether he was going to visit the White House:

On the court, Green's Warriors play the red-hot Boston Celtics on Thursday, which is why he was in the Harvard area. Boston has won 13 games in a row and features Kyrie Irving, who played the Warriors in each of the last three NBA Finals as a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers.