While the Golden State Warriors didn’t make it past the Play-In Tournament, Draymond Green became a regular presence on TNT. Inside the NBA throughout the 2024 playoffs.
To say Ryen Russillo isn’t a fan would be an understatement.
On Monday’s episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast, Simmons discussed the tributes that have been pouring in for the TNT studio show with Warner Bros. Discovery on the verge of losing its NBA rights, which Sports Guy called “the stupidest discussion ever.” While Russillo seemingly agreed that it was inevitable that the series would end on NBC, Amazon’s Prime or ESPN, he joked about his hypothetical farewells, including Green, who is not a regular cast member on the series.
“If it really was last week and they said, ‘Hey, we’re going to bring in Draymond Green,'” Russillo said, before comparing it to the way ESPN pairs random former players with its analysts at full-time NFL Draft. for discussions.
While Inside the NBAThe TNT send-up won’t happen until next season – the league’s next media rights deal won’t take effect until the 2025-26 campaign – Russillo’s biggest point was that the forward of the Warriors stands out in the NBA’s first studio broadcast. And not in a good way.
“I can’t believe they’re airing Draymond at this time. He fucked it up,” Russillo said. “He doesn’t understand the difference between being funny and critical and just being mean.”
A host of The Ryen Russillo Podcast then referenced Green’s comments on Shaquille O’Neal’s podcast, in which the 2017 Defensive Player of the Year said taxes play a role in preventing players from accumulating wealth.
“Draymond is under the influence of illusion. I can tell him firsthand that a lot of people don’t like the tax content,” Russillo said, in an apparent nod to the blowback he received for his comments during a podcast in 2020 , in which he said, “I voted for tax reasons,” which many people took as an admission that he had voted for then-President Donald Trump. “You might want to bottle that one.”
To address Russillo’s broader point, Green has certainly been a polarizing presence on Inside the NBA throughout the playoffs, particularly regarding his analysis of Minnesota Timberwolves center/personal rival Rudy Gobert. And while Inside the NBA has clearly made an effort to bring Green into the mix when possible, it’s hard to imagine he’ll be a series regular a year from now, during what will likely be his swan song on TNT.
(The ring)
