To date, Draymond Green has made approximately $2.7 million over the course of his still-young career. He’ll eclipse those total earnings in this season alone, as he signed an $85 million contract with the Golden State Warriors. Now, Green will have a lot more money to do…well, whatever he wants.
He can buy himself a nice house, and one for his mom, too. He can get that car he’s always dreamed of, maybe even that painting he saw in an art book once and has longed for ever since. He can also donate a lot of money to his alma mater Michigan State, because without his formative years there, he likely wouldn’t have this contract.
And that’s exactly what Green is going to do, as he told Ethan Sherwood Strauss on ESPN’s TrueHoop TV podcast:
“I just felt it was important to me to give back to the university, [to] help the university in any way I possibly can,” Green told ESPN’s TrueHoop TV podcast. “This is something that I’m ecstatic about.”
Green referenced Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, set to start his 21st season, as a powerful reason for the donation. He told ESPN, “I went to school a lost boy and I left there a well-guided young man. I owe a lot of that to Coach Izzo and his staff.”
The donation, Green said, is for both athletics and academics. A portion of the funds will go toward building a new strength and conditioning room in the Breslin Center, a locker room, a recruiting lounge and a hall of history.
Green’s donation is the largest from any athlete in Michigan State history.
Professional athletes are afforded immense opportunity to give back to their communities when they hit their big pay day. The cynical view is that Green could have donated that money to a place that was in more direct need (it’s more than likely that Michigan State could have raised that money on their own), but this is his prerogative, and he chose to give it to a place that helped him reach this point.
That’s all there is to it, and all there needs to be.
(Via ESPN)
