Dealing with a player as animated and short-tempered as Draymond Green is not an easy task for many coaches. Hence, Jay Wright gave Steve Kerr his flowers for handling Green for 10 years. The former Villanova Wildcat coach’s comments came in right after he hilariously trolled the Golden State Warriors leader.
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These playoffs may be the last one for Inside the NBA as the NBA is set to hand over NBC the media rights. However, the TNT crew is pampering their audience while they still can, even inviting Draymond Green and Jay Wright to tonight’s broadcast. During the episode, the two even indulged in some banter related to Green’s behavior.
The four-time NBA champ wanted to know Wright’s reason behind retiring as the Wildcats’ coach. To this, the 62-year-old simply implied that coaching Green at the 2020 Olympics was the boiling point.
Green asked, “Did some of the new rule changes kind of drive you out? You saw where it was going… we starting to see some of the great guys of your era starting to take off. Is that one of the reasons you got out?”
“No Draymond, it was strictly coaching you in the Olympics… God bless Steve, man. After 40 days with you, god bless Steve,” Wright answered.
After leaving everyone in splits, Wright did honestly say that the the Tokyo Games were a great experience, especially getting to spend time with the likes of Draymond Green, Kevin Durant, and Damian Lillard.
“It was awesome. I loved being a part of that with you. You were such a great leader and that gold medal is something I’ll cherish for life and I am grateful to you and Kevin Durant and Dame Lillard and all those guys for that,” Wright clarified.
“It was strictly coaching you in the Olympics. After that, I was done.” @CoachJayWright claims that @Money23Green is the real reason why he retired pic.twitter.com/rJ5aTvUsVP
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) May 14, 2024
It was the picture-perfect finish for Wright to cap off his career by coaching Team USA. Despite suffering a shocking loss against France in the group stage, the camp was able to regroup and go on to get their revenge in the gold medal bout.
Jalen Brunson and many other NBA players were coached by Jay Wright
Jay Wright has been an amazing coach. Apart from winning the NCAA Division I Title two times and making it to four Final Four appearances, Wright has also been successful in developing his players to thrive in the NBA.
Apart from Mikal Bridges and Saddiq Bey, the best example of his players thriving in the NBA is the New York Knicks’ trio of Jalen Brunson, Donte DiVincenzo, and Josh Hart.
Despite the Knicks being severely shorthanded due to harrowing injuries, the three former Villanova players have put their chemistry on display as they are now merely two wins away from a spot in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Jay Wright on Jalen Brunson:
“He wants to carry a team, he wants that responsibility. He’s such a rare individual. He’s the only player that drove me more. I feel like I was always the most driven person in our program, but he was the guy that drove me more than I did myself.” pic.twitter.com/Mnd5nu0U8k
— Dan Bartels (@DanBartels2) May 10, 2024
Other than the three New York Knicks members, Kyle Lowry is also one of the best players to come out of Jay Wright’s Villanova. The guard averaged just 9.5 points and 3 assists in his two college seasons. But he turned out to be an All-Star in the NBA and was even a driving force behind the Toronto Raptors winning an NBA championship.
