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Adrian Wojnarowski, Senior NBA Insider
In an emotional conversation around the time of his indefinite league suspension, Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green suggested that NBA commissioner Adam Silver talked him out of retirement, according to a new episode of “The Draymond Green Show.”
In a clip of the podcast on Volume Sports shared with ESPN on Monday morning, Green, after hitting Phoenix center Jusuf Nurkic in the face on Dec. 12, says he shared an exchange with Silver that included talk about his immediate desire to walk away from the NBA.
“I told him, ‘Adam this is too much for me. … This is too much. It’s all becoming too much for me — and I’m going to retire,'” Green said. “And Adam said, ‘You’re making a very rash decision and I won’t let you do that.’
“We had a long, great conversation — very helpful to me. Very thankful to play in a league with a commissioner like Adam who’s more about helping you than hurting you; helping you than punishing you. He’s more about the players.”
Green is on the cusp of returning from a suspension that has extended 14 games now. The incident with Nurkic was his second violent act that drew a league suspension within a month. Green was suspended for five games for grabbing Minnesota‘s Rudy Gobert and dragging him across the court in a choke hold on Nov. 14.
After Green underwent a month of counseling, the NBA reinstated him on Saturday and he started ramping up with the Warriors on Sunday for a return that sources say is expected to come in approximately a week. Those counseling sessions are expected to continue after he begins to play again.
Green will be rejoining a reeling Warriors team, who are 17-19 and 11th in the Western Conference.
He has averaged 9.7 points, 5.5 rebounds and 5.8 assists in 15 games this season. In the first season of a four-year, $100 million contract, he is losing $153,941 for every game he is suspended.