Could you imagine Draymond Green as NBA commissioner?
The iconic Warriors forward himself could.
Green shared his interest in the role — which has been held by Adam Silver since 2014 — in speaking to sports media personality Skip Bayless during a live edition of “The Draymond Green Show” podcast published Friday.
“I would love to,” Green told Bayless, who proposed the idea. “I always want to see this league grow. You know, in my time in this league, I’ve had my fair share of hiccups, but I hope — and I think — I’ve done more good than bad.”
Green would make a fascinating commissioner, considering he has seen it all during his 14 seasons with Golden State.
A four-time NBA Champion and surely a future Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, Green has contributed to winning at the highest level several times as a starry two-way facilitator while building a reputation as one of basketball’s greatest — and sometimes overzealous — leaders of all time.
Green told Bayless he believes it is his duty to uplift the NBA, citing a mentor who helped shape his illustrious career.
“Pete Myers — I’m sure you know Pete Myers, he was an assistant coach my first two years under Mark Jackson — he used to tell me a couple of things,” Green told Bayless. “He would say, ‘Hey, Draymond, a couple of things I want you to always remember in this league — as long as you’re dealing with this league, you owe it to the game to leave it in a better place than it was when you found it.’
“And he said, ‘You get paid in this league for the next young guy to get paid.’ It’s so often in this league [that] you hear guys complaining about, ‘Oh, man, this young guy is now making this,’ or you hear how an older guy tried to crush a younger guy, and it derails a young guy’s career. And [Myers] was always telling me, ‘You get paid for the next young guy in this league to come along to get paid.’”
Green, of course, currently is focused on helping Steph Curry and the Warriors bring another Larry O’Brien Trophy to the Bay.
However, what Green decides to pursue after his playing days is to be determined; he definitely will have a role in the league if he wants it, and maybe that role one day will be commissioner.
“I said all of that to say, I’ve always tried to live by [Myers’ mentorship]. And throughout my career, to make sure that — no matter what, no matter how people feel, no matter what people say — that when I go to bed at night, I can honestly, truly feel I can go to bed saying, ‘I’ve left this game in a better place than it was when I found it.’”
Bayless agreed, as would many members of Dub Nation.