© Kelley L Cox | 2021 Feb 11
Not everyone is completely buying what Draymond Green was selling during his viral, postgame rant on Monday evening.
Fresh off a demolition of the Cavaliers, Green took the NBA to task for what he perceives as a double-standard, criticizing the league for allowing Cleveland to sit Andre Drummond as they look to trade him. Drummond was a healthy scratch for the second straight game vs. the Warriors.
Here’s the rant in full:
Draymond Green said it was “bulls—“ the Cavaliers can sit Andre Drummond after reports come out about the team shopping their big man ahead of the trade deadline, defending Kyrie, Harden and AD in the process.
"At some point the players must be respected in these situations." pic.twitter.com/C4uU8JnCeJ
— KNBR (@KNBR) February 16, 2021
Joe Vardon covers the Cavaliers for The Athletic, and told “Murph & Mac” on Tuesday that while there is some validity to Green’s overall point regarding a double-standard when it comes to player loyalty, using Andre Drummond as the primary example of that doesn’t apply at all.
“First of all, Draymond’s point is not new,” Vardon said on KNBR. “It’s something that LeBron has been saying for years, about this double-standard, that fans, majority of them white, media, majority of them white, demand player loyalty. You will finish your contract, you will honor it, you will play. But then when a general manager or organization decides to move a player before the contract is up, that’s fine, that’s all part of the game. So this is something that has been said by prominent players throughout the league, Draymond of course is one.
“The point overall that he makes I feel does have some validity to it, I think he was off on some of the finer points, and he was way off when it came to using Andre Drummond as the poster child for this. Draymond must be unaware that Andre’s attitude on this young, developing, bad team, has been so poor, that it has directly affected how they’re playing on the court, and has directly impacted this eight or nine game losing streak. Point two is the Cavs tried to talk to him twice. Twice! Like, ‘Get with it, we’re going to try to trade you. We know we got Jarrett Allen now, but please, help us.’
“They went to him for a role change, asking if he would come off the bench. He said ‘no.’ So this was not a case of an organization deciding to trade a guy and just sitting him out. Andre earned this and even reached out to teammates after he was first sat on Sunday night. To say to that affect, ‘Yeah this benching is because of my attitude.’”
The stats would appear to back this up. In the two games before he was benched, Drummond scored 8 and 4 points on 33.3 and 28.6 percent shooting respectively. He had five turnovers combined in those contests. During the month of February, Drummond was shooting 48 percent while averaging over 14 points and 8 rebounds, all three below his career averages.
Listen to the full interview below.