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Draymond Green went through the most “nerve-racking” experience of his NBA career last week as it became increasingly possible the Warriors could ship him to the Milwaukee Bucks at the trade deadline.
After a conversation with coach Steve Kerr that made the trade rumors feel real, Green also spoke with Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy — and their discussion confirmed his name was in the mix to acquire two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.
“[Dunleavy] texted me,” Green revealed on Saturday’s episode of “The Draymond Green Show” podcast. “He said, ‘Call me. It’s not urgent. Not urgent. Call me when you get a chance.’ So I’m like, all right, not urgent means I’m not about to get traded. And he asked me about a couple of deals. ‘What do you think of this deal? What do you think of that deal?’ And we talked for quite a while, and then he’s like, ‘And by the way, on the honest front, obviously, we spoke about Giannis. We talked about what picks we’d send them. We haven’t talked about, really, the players that would go into the deal, but obviously, if we were to do a deal with Giannis, you or Jimmy [Butler] would have to be in the trade just to make it work.
“But what it said to me in that moment was there’s a chance I may get traded for Giannis, because he didn’t rule it out. He didn’t say, ‘We’re not putting you in the deal.’ So I took that as, all right, it’ll probably be me. … Future, uncertain, getting traded to Milwaukee. If I’m getting traded to Milwaukee, am I staying in Milwaukee? If I’m not staying in Milwaukee, where am I going? If I’m only going there for half a season, is my family coming? What the hell is going on?”
Ultimately, of course, Green stayed put, as did Antetokounmpo. The Warriors instead traded forward Jonathan Kuminga and guard Buddy Hield to the Atlanta Hawks for big man Kristaps Porzingis, and sent center Trayce Jackson-Davis to the Toronto Raptors in exchange for a second-round pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.
For Green, he knows that the best way to avoid trade rumors all together is for the Warriors to win games. Golden State did just that and then some in the team’s first game following the deadline, gritting out a 101-97 win over the Phoenix Suns on Thursday at Mortgage Matchup Center.
The 35-year-old Warriors veteran displayed nothing but class as trade rumors swirled around him in recent weeks, meeting the moment with a poignant press conference after what could have been his final game with Golden State on Tuesday at Chase Center.
Green was honest and reflective in that 14-minute presser — and he said on his podcast that nearly leaving the only NBA team he has known gave him a new perspective on the league and his career.
“What I’ll say is coming out of it, number one, is you come out of it with appreciation of what a lot of NBA players, the majority of NBA players, have dealt with,” Green said. “You come out of it with gratitude for the journey that has been and not having to deal with that. But even more so than dealing with that, just the journey that it’s been. You start to replay the memories and, man, when it first began, and is this the end? And if this is the end what does it look like for me from there.
“It’s a very interesting space to be in answering everybody’s questions. You’re almost answering them as if you’re getting traded … I gained an appreciation and a gratitude, but I also walked away from it like, yo, that’s not something I want to keep dealing with. So, what is it that I have to do so that I don’t have to keep dealing with that thing, because it’s just nerve-racking. And I didn’t I just didn’t love the way it make me made me feel.”
When all was said and done, all of those nerves were for nothing. And it appears Green — and, perhaps, Dub Nation — have a new appreciation for his time on the Warriors.