Draymond Green Calling Himself The Best Defender To Ever Play In The NBA Is Simply Outrageous
Listen, you don't get to where Draymond Green is without having this mindset. I get why he said it, he probably truly believes that statement no matter how insane it is. This also isn't me saying that Draymond wasn't an absolute monster defensively at his peak. The guy does have a DPOY under his belt as well as 3x All NBA Defensive First Teams and 2x All NBA Defensive Second Team selections. You win DPOY and have 5 All NBA Defense selections I am going to consider you a really really good defender. Pretty simple.
But….the greatest defender in NBA history? Draymond. What are we doing here.
And look. What do I know about defending in the NBA? I'm a 6'1 white jewish blogger for crying out loud. I don't know shit about playing NBA defense. But my man Tony Allen sure as shit does
TA himself has 3x First Team and 3x Second Team selections. You want to talk about a player who knows a thing or two about putting clamps on someone, TA knows for sure
But I wouldn't call him the greatest defender ever either.
How about this fella named MICHEAL JORDAN? He's a DPOY, a 9x First Team defender and a 3x Steals leader. What about Ben Wallace? He won 4 DPOYs and was a 5x First Team defender. Scottie Pippen, ever heard of him? No big deal, he was only a 8x First Team Defender and 2x Second Team selection as well as a 1x Steals champ. Then there's The Glove. Gary Payton was also a DPOY, a 9x First Team Defender and a 1x Steals leader.
You want more? Maybe some additional big men? Sure. How about Hakeem The Dream? He won 2 DPOYs, was a 5x All NBA First Team, 4x All NBA 2nd Team and a 3x Blocks leader. Kevin Garnett was a DPOY, a 9x First Team All Defense and 3x Second Team. Or maybe we should stop overthinking this and just mention the name Bill Russell. End of argument.
Again, this is not to say Draymond isn't one of the better defenders the league has seen. He sort of revolutionized how teams defend/are built in this day in age. The whole small ball death lineup worked because Draymond is such a versatile defender. It helped turned the Warriors into a dynasty.
But he's high as hell if he truly believes he's the best defender to ever play in the NBA. Have a sense of history for me one time Draymond.