LeBron James paid tribute to his Klutch Sports teammate Draymond Green after Green reached 900 career blocks, becoming only the second player in Golden State Warriors history to reach the milestone.
The Warriors celebrated Green’s achievement, calling him a “defense mastermind” in a special social media post.
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James shared the graphic on his Instagram Stories and added his own message for the four-time champion:
“Congrats my brother!!!”
James and Green have faced off in multiple playoffs, dating back to when James played for Cleveland and continuing into his Lakers tenure.
James defeated Green and the Warriors in the 2016 NBA Finals, while Green won his first three championships against James and the Cavaliers.
James has totaled 1,150 career blocks, 250 more than Green’s 900. Green became known as the Warriors’ defensive enforcer, recording at least 90 blocks in four different seasons.
This season, Green is averaging only 0.7 steals and 0.8 blocks per game, but he remains renowned for contributions that don’t always show up on the stat sheet, including defensive rotations and team defense.
With Green leading the way, the Warriors currently rank sixth in defensive rating and fifth in steal rate.
Bill Simmons discusses ripple effects of Draymond Green’s flagrant foul on LeBron James in 2016 Finals
Bill Simmons recently discussed the ripple effects of Green’s suspension in 2016, which occurred after a flagrant foul on LeBron James that led to Green missing Game 5 of the NBA Finals.
The Cavaliers ultimately won that pivotal fifth game, and Cleveland later became the first team in NBA history to come back from a 3-1 deficit to win the Finals.
On a recent episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast, the “Podfather” noted the suspension’s major impact on the NBA landscape.
“If he hadn’t won in Cleveland in ’16, ’17, ’18, would he have just stayed?” Simmons said. “Would he have just been like, ‘I can’t leave until this happens,’ then he never goes to the Lakers.”
Simmons added that if Green had not been suspended, the Warriors likely would have won the series in five games and cemented themselves as the greatest single-season team ever, having gone 73-9 and overcoming a 3-1 deficit against the Thunder before dominating Cleveland.
Afterward, James lost twice more to Golden State in the Finals, then signed with the Lakers in 2018, winning a championship with them in 2020.
Edited by John Ezekiel Hirro
