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Both Draymond Green and AT&T know how much the Golden State Warriors defensive standout’s on-court decisions affected his team this season—and they’re not afraid to say it.
Since coming to the Warriors from Michigan State in 2012, Green and longtime teammates Steph Curry and Klay Thompson have won four titles together. Green also has become a generation’s defensive template, being named to the NBA’s All-Defensive Team eight times in his career.
Unfortunately, like great defensive players before him—Charles Barkley, Dennis Rodman and Rasheed Wallace—Green’s talent for goading opposing players into poor choices has led to a few of his own.
The NBA star has racked up nearly 150 technical fouls during his career and was suspended for one game last year after notching 16 in a season. This season, he was suspended for five games for putting the Minnesota Timberwolves’ Rudy Gobert in a headlock and another 12 games for punching the Phoenix Suns’ Jusuf Nurkic.
The Warriors finished 46-36 and squeaked into the last spot of the NBA’s four-team play-in round in the Western Conference, though they eventually lost that game.
Green knows the Warriors are better with him on the court—with the team only finishing around .500 without him—and he’s not afraid to own up to his mistakes on a national scale.
During college basketball’s March Madness tournament, Green and AT&T (along with the brand’s creative partners at BBDO LA) dropped some sports marketing that poked fun at his questionable on-court choices, pointing out that they present an opportunity for growth.
ADWEEK spoke with Green about the spot, his growing self-awareness, and how both his brand and media partnerships—including his deal with Turner’s Inside the NBA—have influenced his more recent decisions.
ADWEEK: How important is it to find the right partners so you don’t look back and say, “I spent hours of my life talking to people about corn chips?”
Green: That was something that I would say maybe in 2019 or 2020.
I had a bunch of different brands, and they were kind of all over the place. At that point, I stopped. I got rid of all my brand deals except for Nike, which then turned into Converse.
It was stripping the house down to the studs, and I was like, “OK, now from this point on, I’m only going to partner with brands that A: Want to tell an interesting story, as AT&T has done in this case. And B: Are great brands, brands that we know, brands that we love, brands that I would want my name along with, like an AT&T.
I’ve had an AT&T phone line for the last 10 years. So it’s brands that mean something to me. Brands that, when you look on the TV screen, you’re proud to be a part of.
This spot was reminiscent of Nike’s “Barkley on Broadway” spot from the ‘90s about Charles Barkley’s own defensive style and struggles. What was the creative process like and how comfortable were you referencing recent events?
As all of these things transpired over the course of this year, you have one or two choices to make: You lean into it or you run from it—and I’ve never wanted to run from anything.
When they sent the treatment and what the storyline would be, I was thrilled because it’s also the opportunity to address the elephant in the room.
I’m not running from who I’ve been my entire career but giving you the opportunity to step inside and understand who I am, who I’ve been, what I love about who I am, what I hate about who I am, what I want to change, what I’m keeping exactly the same and everything in between.
How important is it for you at this stage of your career to have supportive brand partners?
I take a great deal of pride in being a great partner for brands. I support them. I ride for them. I try to give more than I’m contractually obligated to because we’re partners.
I try to give my all to make sure that I am doing more than was asked of me as the partner of a brand, because I know I can move the needle. Everyone has an opinion on me. If you love me, you watch because you love me. If you hate me, you watch because you hate me. But you watch. You care. And for me, that’s all that matters.
You can be either loved or hated, and still be stiff on camera. Your appearances in this AT&T add and TNT broadcasts suggest you’re already comfortable on screen. How much work did that require?
It started growing up in Saginaw, Mich. I remember when Saginaw newspapers started to interview me. I still remember the guy’s name, Hugh Bernreuter—that’s where the practice starts. Even the News 5 channel in Saginaw, the News 12 channel in Flint that covers Saginaw: That’s where it all begins, and I always took those interviews very seriously.
That’s translated over the years to spots like this with AT&T and being in front of the camera more with the TNT opportunities. When I get those opportunities, I’m all in. I’m studying, preparing and practicing because I want to be great.
I’ve gotten better over time. I hate hearing myself talk on camera, which is a very funny thing because I watch film on myself just to get better. I still hate to hear my voice, but I love for my voice to be heard.
Was there an early moment that was particularly memorable?
I remember when I was 6 years old, we had a Black History Month play and I had to do the “I Have a Dream” Dr. King speech. I took the mic. I set up in front of everybody at the assembly—all the parents, all the students—and I delivered my speech with my chest out. I remember people coming up to me and my mom saying, “Oh, my God! That boy is a star. He gets it.”
When I think back to that, the practice started there—there was no camera. But all of those eyes in the little gym at Longstreet Elementary in Saginaw, Mich., that was my camera.
How much thought and effort are you giving your next act as a commentator?
When I was a rookie, one of our assistant coaches—Pete Myers—told me, “You owe it to the game to leave it in a better place than it was when you got it.”
Even from a commentator’s standpoint, I still think about what Pete Myers said to me. When I’m thinking about my next career, that’s one of the things that I think about. This is still a way that I can continue to give to the game that’s given so much to me, the game that I’ve loved my entire life.
But the only way you can give to that is if you’re great. You can’t be mediocre and give to it—no one wants mediocrity. No one’s following mediocrity.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
