Draymond Green said he believes the current style of NBA play has gotten “very boring.”
On Saturday, the Golden State Warriors forward spoke to reporters about the state of basketball. The four-time All-Star argued for a return to old-school officiating that gives preferential treatment to top players over an “equal opportunity” system that slows down the game.
“It junks the game up because you have too many people getting calls, and it just shouldn’t be that way,” Green said. “You have to earn your stripes to get that, and that’s gone. … I think it’s spread a lot of entitlement, and with that has come a lot of disdain from fans.”
When asked if he considers the current game boring, Green replied, “Absolutely.” The 34-year-old doesn’t think most of the league is playing smart basketball.
Green recalled seeing a clip of Kobe Bryant describing the modern game as “accidental basketball.” He said the late icon “couldn’t have been more right” and called it “refreshing” to play against the cerebral LeBron James.
“Every possession is some type of chess move,” Green said, via Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press. “You don’t get that today in the NBA often. … You don’t just get that on a regular basis. It’s just who can run faster, who can hit more threes. It’s no substance. So I think it’s very boring.”
Damian Lillard shared similar concerns about the NBA becoming a less entertaining product in a quest for optimization.
“I think as a league now, we look so deep into analytics, and you hear people saying out loud, we want a three or a layup. Don’t be shooting too many mid-range jumpers,” Lillard said on Saturday. “You hear that, and I think it just kind of takes away the originality of the game.”
On the other hand, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said he believes the state of basketball is “excellent.”
“We’re paying a lot of attention to it,” Silver said. “I’m never going to say there isn’t room for improvement. We’ll continue to look at it and study it. But I am happy with the state of the game right now.”
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