If someone put Draymond Green and Paul Pierce in a room, it likely wouldn’t take very long at all for a shouting match to start. Recently, the latter of the two even admitted when he was asked to reveal ‘how many blunts of smoke’, he has with certain players, indicating how much he didn’t get along with certain players. And NBA history remembers one interaction between them.
During an interview with a well-known content creator, ‘Soho Brody‘, Pierce was asked about the nature of his bad blood with Draymond Green. In response, he admitted that their bond was as sour as it possibly could be, saying they had “10 blunts of smoke”, and it’s something that stands to this day.
Pierce and Green’s less-than-ideal relationship saw its genesis when the two got into a little tiff during a 2017 match-up between the Clippers and the Warriors. At the time, the Boston Celtics legend was coming off the bench for the LA Clippers, as he had entered his twilight years. Unfortunately for him, when he went to talk smack to Green, the Warriors star had no regard for any of his greatness. He simply responded with a statement that promptly shut his opponent right down.
“Chasing that farewell tour, they don’t love you like that! They ain’t giving you no farewell tour, they don’t love you like that … you thought you was Kobe [Bryant]?!”
Draymond later explained that he didn’t think much about what he said before he said it at the moment. He had just heard someone talk smack to him and instinctively came up with a brutal reply. And as one might expect, he was far from apologetic about it.
Not too long ago, Pierce chose to confront Green while he was on his podcast. And suffice it to say, his side of the story is not one that many expected it to be.
Paul Pierce’s side of the tale
During a 2024 interaction between them on DrayMagic’s podcast, then-called The Volume, Pierce confronted Green about his comments, saying that the people needed to hear his side of the story. Saying that he initially didn’t hear Draymond‘s trash talk, he announced,
” I’m wolfin’ at you like ‘nah, f–k that, man. F–k him.’ I’m shooting, I want everybody to know this is what we on this year. Damn, come on. This is the class of the league right here. You said what you said, right? And the camera is on me. And to be honest, I didn’t hear what you said. People don’t know this, but the microphone underneath the basket picks up everything. It made it look like you shot sometime to me, but honestly I didn’t even hear what you said until after the game.”
Many have called Pierce out since, saying that there was no way he couldn’t have heard what Green said to him. However, to be fair to him, NBA arenas are often too loud for players to be unable to hear most things.
As for the two NBA greats, while they have clearly talked about what happened, it appears that one of them holds a grudge over the incident to this day. And given how long it has been already, it is extremely unlikely that this will ever change.