Draymond Green was rooting for Team USA to take home gold in Paris, but the Golden State Warriors power forward seemed to be a little disappointed that he was not involved in the 2024 Summer Games.
“I’m always rooting for Team USA, and I have made that very clear, but at the start of these Olympics, I was in my feelings,” said Green on his podcast.
Green is a two-time Olympic gold medalist and was a member of the team in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and Tokyo in 2020. He is the enforcer for his NBA team and is the perfect type of player to fill that role on the USA national team as well.
“I was sitting there watching the game, and every time I was watching, I was putting myself right there. If I had been right there, I could have stopped that. I would have guarded that like this, and it took me a few games to get out of my feelings and stop doing that,” said Green.
In the semifinal game against Nikola Jokic and Serbia and the championship game against Victor Wembanyama and France, the 2017 Defensive Player of the Year felt like he could have made a difference.
“Till the day they called Derrick White, if they had called me, I was out of here,” said Green.
The 2024 Olympic team is now regarded as one of the greatest ever assembled, but it was almost a massive failure. At one point, Team USA was trailing by 15 points late in the second half of their elimination game versus Serbia. They would have left Paris with a bronze medal at best if they had lost.
“I would have teleported,” joked Green about the matchup with Serbia and if he would have liked to play.
It is safe to say it would have been too late to make a last-minute roster addition, but at his age, Green is still one of the best and most versatile defensive bigs in the NBA. He could have been a valuable asset to the team and would have had no problem playing a specific role.
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