On Sunday, a reporter asked Golden State Warriors All-Star forward Draymond Green a question that incurred a fiery retort from the stretch four/point forward. After a practice, a reporter asked him if he was the modern day Barkley.
Cosmetically and aesthetically, there might be some validity to that query. They’re both undersized power forwards who have played the role of villain at one time or another.
But that’s about where the similarities end. Judging from his answer, Green was similarly perplexed by this apparent neophyte’s interview shenanigans.
“[Chuck] told y’all in ’90-what that he wasn’t your kid’s role model anyway … so there you have it,” Green said in response. “He wasn’t my role model. I grew up in Saginaw, Michigan. … That’s what you do, you talk. You talk junk during basketball. That’s how I was raised. I was raised in a family like that, so I didn’t need a Charles Barkley to influence me.”
Clearly flustered, it almost was as surreal as the time a reporter asked PG Kyrie Irving if SF LeBron James, a man only seven years his senior, was like a father figure. While this wasn’t as egregiously thickheaded as that situation, it’s kinda close. Green credits his mother, father and neighborhood for the bulk of his outspoken disposition, saying “It was inherited.”
“I was raised by Mary Babers,” Green said. “In the Babers family, that’s what you do. You speak your mind. It ain’t got nothing to do with Chuck. I wasn’t a Charles Barkley fan growing up. No disrespect to Chuck. He’s a great player, but as I got older, I watched his game because I knew he was undersized and the things that he could do, I tried to add some of that stuff to my game. But nah, he didn’t influence me at all.”
