Last night, the Warriors looked set to end their four-game losing streak. They had a six-point lead against the Nuggets with two and a half minutes left on the clock. However, they got outscored 10-0 in that span and succumbed to their fifth straight loss. Star forward Draymond Green, who was on the bench, wished he was on the court to help the team get over the line. But he sat out of the game due to a calf injury, which he claims he would have played through in the past.
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Ahead of the game, former Warriors star Baron Davis asked the four-time NBA champion about his injury on the The Draymond Green Show With Baron Davis. The four-time NBA champion revealed it wasn’t severe but he knew he would have made it worse and not played as well as the team expects him to had he not rested.
Green explained he’s learned to listen to his body and not force himself to play every game, as it’s detrimental to him and the team. He revealed that he played with injuries in the past, especially during the 2015-16 season, where the Warriors finished 73-9, breaking the Bulls’ record of most wins in the regular season.
The forward was so obsessed with that record that he played in multiple games with a concussion at the tail-end of the campaign. He said,
“I remember I played concussed [that season] and I ain’t tell nobody. I got whacked by Joe Ingles, who was playing in Utah and it was coming towards [the end of the year]. And I drove home dizzy as hell… For days, I’m driving foggy, but we’re really close now to closing in on that 73. So I can’t miss a game… So I didn’t tell nobody, but I was f**ked up.”
At the time, the Warriors were 68-7 and needed five wins in their last seven games to break the record. Green realized that getting diagnosed with a concussion would’ve cost him at least four games and he wasn’t keen on watching from the sidelines, hoping his teammates get the job done.
Instead, he soldiered on and helped the Warriors get to 73 wins. However, eight years later, Green had a completely different outlook towards injuries.
Green explains why he sat out vs. Nuggets
The veteran forward revealed he hadn’t been operating at full strength for a while and needed a break to recuperate. He said,
“Over the last few games, I’ve been a bit beat up. But still felt healthy enough to get out on the floor and help my team. [But] over the last couple of days, I started getting this calf tightness.”
Green’s symptoms mirrored the ones he felt in the lead-up to the calf injury he suffered in 2022 that sidelined him for three months. He quickly informed the training staff who decided it was in his best interests to sit out of the game against the Nuggets.
The four-time NBA champion is still reluctant to sit out and wants to push through the pain barrier. However, Green knows that it’s better to miss a few games right now, than to be sitting out for a few months when it really matters the most.
