During an interview at the Golden State Warriors' practice facility yesterday afternoon, a reporter asked Draymond Green what he thought about the comparisons to Charles Barkley, being that they're both undersized, trash talking, passionate power forwards.
To have your game compared to an NBA Hall of Famer is a compliment for sure, but Draymond isn't quite sold on the idea that he's the modern-day Charles Barkley.
This was Draymond's initial reaction when asked about the Barkley comparison, per ESPN's Chris Haynes,
"Hell no," Green said. "I'm the modern-day Draymond Green. Fuck no."
He expanded by saying although he wasn't a Barkley fan growing up, he still watched his game and tried to add emulate some of his on-court skills... before concluding with, "but nah, he didn't influence me at all."
Per ESPN,
"[Chuck] told y'all in '90-what that he wasn't your kid's role model anyway," Green continued. "He wasn't my role model. I grew up in Saginaw, Michigan. ... That's what you do, you talk, you talk junk during basketball. That's how I was raised. I was raised in a family like that, so I didn't need a Charles Barkley to influence me."
"I wasn't a Charles Barkley fan growing up. No disrespect to Chuck. He's a great player, but as I got older, I watched his game because I knew he was undersized and the things that he could do, I tried to add some of that stuff to my game. But nah, he didn't influence me at all."
Check out footage of Draymond's reaction to the Charles Barkley comparisons below.