Draymond Green, who was the favorite to win his second Defensive Player of the Year award this season before a back injury that kept his sidelined for a couple of months, received recognition of his defense as he was voted to the NBA All-Defensive Second Team.
But the three-time NBA champion thinks he deserved to be on the NBA All-Defensive First Team instead. He has been on that team four times in his career so far. It was Rudy Gobert, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Mikal Bridges, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Marcus Smart that were voted to the NBA All-Defensive First Team.
According to Green, he cannot name five players that had a better year in defense than him. He also pointed at the fact that, unlike the Defensive Player of the Year, there is no requirement for a player to play a certain amount of games in order to be voted NBA All-Defensive First Team.
“For me, it’s a slight,” Green said when asked if he took his second-team designation as a compliment or slight. “When I look at the first team, I am not sure I can pinpoint, definitely not five guys that had a better defensive season than me. And there are no [games played] requirements [for All-Defensive voting]. There is not some amount that you have to play in. If there was an amount that you had to play, then I would be an idiot sitting here and saying that.”
