Draymond Green’s comments about Jordan’s Bulls reek of insecurity

Despite having just added another championship ring to his collection, Draymond Green‘s competitive spirit has apparently yet to be sated. Green has recently taken to Twitter to claim that the Golden State Warriors would handily defeat the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls of the late ’90s.

He mentions the stylistic differences between the two eras make them impossible to compare, while at the same time hypocritically stating that the 2017 rendition of Golden State would prove their superiority over the second threepeat Bulls.

Draymond Green reignites the GOAT team debate with a controversial take on how his Warriors would match up with the Jordan-era Chicago Bulls.

Despite repeatedly claiming that “It’s very dumb to compare one era to the next era,” Draymond doubled down on his take and declared the Warriors would best any version of the Jordan-era Bulls.

So for that reason, I’d just like to make one thing abundantly clear.

The Chicago Bulls are still the best team of all-time

Although I’m aware Draymond’s opinion comes from a deluded pace of personal bias, let’s say I momentarily entertain his hypothetical situation here and compare the ’96 Bulls to Golden State. Yes, that’s the ’96 Chicago Bulls, since it makes zero sense for Draymond to try comparing the best version of the Warriors in ’17 to the worst version of the Bulls in ’98.

Chicago has a far superior ‘big 3′ here as NBA 75 members Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Dennis Rodman are just a far more well-rounded and supremely talented trio of players when compared to Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, and Klay Thompson — three players who all fulfill the same role.

I also believe Chicago’s core rotation pieces are on paper significantly better players than Golden State’s when you look at Toni Kukoc, Steve Kerr, Luc Longley, and Ron Harper. After Andre Iguodala, the Warriors’ depth falls off tremendously as washed-up veterans like Shaun Livingston, Zaza Pachulia, and David West were forced to play large roles in the playoffs.

The biggest thing the Warriors have going for themselves is the style of play they employ, since everyone assumes that this theoretical matchup would be taking place according to today’s rules. There’s a good reason for that too, since Golden State’s scheme would likely crumble if forced to abide by the ’90s rulebook.

What I find interesting about this argument is that Phil Jackson is held in high regard as the greatest head coach of all time, while Jordan, Pippen, and Rodman are considered three of the best defenders of all time. And yet, the common sentiment is that the Bulls wouldn’t be able to adjust to guarding a perimeter-oriented offense? Just because the Bulls never had to defend a team that shoots a high volume of threes, does not mean they cannot defend a team that shoots a high volume of threes.

At the end of the day, the ’96 Bulls would have the best player on the court. They would have the best coach. They would have the best perimeter and post defenders, the best rebounder, and the best bench depth between these two squads. Sure, the Warriors could always steal a game on any given night if their shooting is hot, but historically speaking their big 3 have shown to be far more prone to disappearing in the playoffs than Chicago’s. For now, the Jordan-era Chicago Bulls are still the best team in NBA history.

Draymond Green’s comments showcase his insecurity

Now that we’ve addressed his misguided argument, I’d like to dig into just why Draymond is taking to Twitter to make these comments in the first place. Why exactly would he be making these grand proclamations now, instead of five years ago after that 2017 squad won it all?

In fact, Green’s increasingly-aggressive vernacular appears to be a symptom of a larger issue occurring in his head. This isn’t even Green’s first case of aggressive comments made online this summer alone. We saw as much after the Warriors’ Finals victory when Draymond took to the internet to take jabs at both Memphis’ Ja Morant and Boston’s Jaylen Brown.

What’s interesting about these cases to me, is that although Golden State emerged victorious, both Morant and Brown played extremely well in their matchups against the Warriors. Want to chance a wild guess at who did not play so well over the course of these playoffs?

Draymond Green, of course, was a massive disappointment this postseason. He averaged just 8 points on a pathetic 47.9% shooting from the field and was largely rendered a nonfactor on the offensive end, on the glass, and pretty much any time he was standing beyond the 3-point line.

This was clearly getting under his skin throughout the postseason, most evident after a Game 1 loss to the Celtics in the NBA Finals. A game in which he provided just 4 points on a miserable 2-for-12 shooting before ultimately fouling out in frustration.

Now that the Warriors have actually emerged as champions, Draymond has taken to engaging in Twitter battles where he can avoid scrutiny by flaunting his ring. Ironically, Draymond looked less like the third cog in a ‘big 3’ and ended up actually being the 5th or 6th most important player on the Warriors roster during these playoffs. In his place, Andrew Wiggins, Jordan Poole, and Kevon Looney all rose to the challenge and served their roles very well.

Draymond, on the other hand, made his most noteworthy contributions to the postseason by rushing home after every game to record his podcast.

Draymond is preparing for a post-basketball career

This comes off as little more than an ill-disguised attempt to enhance his image as a media personality. After seeing Patrick Beverley make headlines this summer with his hot takes and attacks directed at Chris Paul and the Phoenix Suns, it makes sense that Draymond would try to emulate this with his unprovoked comments about the Chicago Bulls.

However, what Green does not seem to realize, is that the waning need for hot take artists in sports media is probably at an all-time low. Fans are no longer looking for their media personalities to manufacture ridiculous and asinine narratives when they see enough of that on their social media feeds every day.

I’ve no doubt in my mind that Green is a genuine basketball genius with a lot to offer, but he’s doing himself a disservice here. Draymond isn’t delivering expert analysis here like J.J. Redick has found success doing. He doesn’t have the charismatic personality of Charles Barkley. Nor has he achieved an illustrious individual career and accolades like Shaquille O’Neal.

Instead, Draymond comes off in a vein much more similar to former-NBA players turned media personalities Paul Pierce and Kendrick Perkins, each of whom have received much criticism for their ability as analysts. If this truly is an early attempt to help kickstart his career in sports media even after retirement, then he’s got a lot of improvement to do on that end.

Unless, of course, this was nothing more than the ramblings of an insecure “star” who needs his team much more than his team needs him.