Par Pierre-Andréa Fraile | Journaliste sportif
LeBron James and Draymond Green are keeping busy these days by hosting their respective podcasts. In fact, the Warriors’ inside man has used this platform to shoot down an idea put forward by his counterpart.
Rivals on the NBA court, they quickly shed this label when they meet off it. Draymond Green and LeBron James enjoy a long-standing friendship, which their many NBA Finals clashes and initially frosty relationship have not managed to weaken. Nevertheless, certain topics of discussion can still lead to opposing points of view.
Draymond Green qualifies LeBron’s playoff suggestion
Both qualified for the playoffs, Draymond and LeBron had to put their title aspirations on hold rather quickly. They could therefore deplore the lack of rest they enjoyed before the postseason began. But while the King called for a substantial break before the serious business began, his counterpart and friend expressed some reservations in his podcast:
Draymond Green: Bron recently suggested that there should be a month’s rest before the playoffs start. I don’t know if that’s really possible. Players could find themselves out of shape and that could have the opposite effect to the one desired. Some might even get injured after not having played for so long and suddenly picking up with the intensity of the playoffs.
Worried about players’ health, the Warriors’ barker fears the potentially harmful aspect of such a long truce. On the other hand, he doesn’t totally reject this reform and brings his own nuance to it:
Draymond Green: I’m not sure that a one-month break is the right solution. On the other hand, two weeks sounds like a good idea.
Even without playing basketball for two weeks, no player would be totally out of shape. On the other hand, those who are injured could have time to recover in two weeks. And when you think back to Steph’s injury…
As a reminder, Stephen Curry missed virtually all of Golden State’s series against Minnesota with a right hamstring injury. His team-mate seems to be suggesting that, with a little rest before the start of the finals, such a blow could have been avoided. And like Aaron Gordon, he also believes that the interludes between each match should be lengthened:
Draymond Green: I tend to agree with him that there should be at least two days’ rest between each of our games.