Draymond Green and Jayson Tatum had their share of run-ins during the 2022 NBA Finals, which the Warriors won in six games over the Boston Celtics. However, there was mutual respect once the heat of competition wore off.
ESPN's Ramona Shelburne recently wrote about the advice Green gave Tatum after the Finals, which has helped elevate the 24-year-old into the NBA MVP discussion with Boston a league-best 26-10.
Green responded to the article Saturday on Twitter, praising Tatum for embracing what the two discussed in the offseason.
While Green and the Warriors have enjoyed highs in the last decade by winning four NBA championships in eight years, they've also experienced Tatum's feeling of reaching the Finals, only to lose the series. They fell to the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016 and Toronto Raptors in 2019, so the Warriors' veteran forward wanted to relay his experience to the Celtics star.
"He was like, 'Man, what people don't realize is you get to the Finals and you play longer than anybody else and then you lose and you don't have s--- to celebrate,'" Tatum told Shelburne. "And he was really emphasizing that in the beginning of the training camp that we can't just think we are going to get back there. It's going to be different. We have to start all the way over. Everybody got to be committed. Everybody got to be ready because it's not going to be easy. It's not a guarantee that we get back."
Golden State Warriors
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Green can be tough to face on the court, as shown throughout his 11 NBA seasons. However, he isn't shy about passing knowledge to the next generation of players, even if they're not on the same team.