With the Golden State Warriors not making it past the Play-In Tournament, Draymond Green has become a regular presence on TNT’s Inside the NBA throughout the 2024 playoffs.
To say that Ryen Russillo isn’t a fan would be an understatement.
On Monday’s episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast, Simmons discussed the the tributes that have poured in for TNT’s studio show with Warner Bros. Discovery on the verge of losing its NBA rights, which the Sports Guy called, “the dumbest discussion of all time.” While Russillo seemingly agreed that it’s inevitable the show will just wind up on NBC, Amazon’s Prime or ESPN, he joked about its hypothetical sendoff including Green, who isn’t a regular member of the show’s cast.
“If this really were the last week and they were like, ‘Hey, we’re going to have Draymond Green come by,'” Russillo said, before comparing it to how ESPN pairs random former players with its full-time NFL Draft analysts for discussions.
While Inside the NBA‘s TNT sendoff won’t be until next season — the league’s next media rights deal won’t go into effect until the 2025-26 campaign — Russillo’s larger point was that the Warriors forward stands out on the NBA’ premier studio show. And not in a good way.
“I can’t believe they’re putting Draymond on the broadcast during this time. He f***s it up,” Russillo said. “He doesn’t understand the difference between being funny and critical and just being f***ing mean.”
The host of The Ryen Russillo Podcast proceeded to reference Green’s comments on Shaquille O’Neal’s podcast, in which the 2017 Defensive Player of the Year stated that taxes play a role in preventing players from accumulating wealth.
“Draymond’s been on a heater of delusion. I can tell him firsthand, a lot of people don’t like tax content,” Russillo said, in an apparent nod to the blowback he received for his comments during a podcast in 2020, in which he stated “I voted for tax purposes,” which many people took as an admission he voted for then-President Donald Trump. “You might want to bottle that one up.”
To Russillo’s larger point, Green has certainly been a polarizing presence on Inside the NBA throughout the playoffs, particularly when it comes to his analysis of Minnesota Timberwolves center/personal rival Rudy Gobert. And while Inside the NBA has clearly made an effort to work Green into the mix when possible, it’s hard to imagine he’ll be a regular on the show a year from now, during what will likely be its swan song on TNT.
