Draymond Green Tried Again To Clarify Comments On Women’s Sports: ‘I Want The Same Thing’

Draymond Green has found himself in hot water over the past couple weeks over his comments regarding women’s sports and athletes pushing for fair and equitable pay. Megan Rapinoe pointed out where his initial Twitter thread missed the mark, and when he was asked about that afterwards, he chose a very poor argument that women athletes need to “stop complaining” and offer up a plan for how to make changes happen.

That, unsurprisingly, yielded plenty of backlash and even garnered a soliloquy from Stephen A. Smith on Thursday, who called out Green, ESPN, and even himself for needing to be better about supporting women’s sports and the athletes calling for equality. On Thursday night, the Warriors had media availability and Green was asked about the conversation that’s been taking place about his comments and the critiques he’s received, and while he didn’t back down from his initial statements as some would have liked, he did try to clarify what he was saying, insisting he and Rapinoe are pushing for the same thing.

“At the end of the day, what Megan wants and what I want is the same thing,” Green said. “And if she believes doing something a certain way gets her to the end goal, I’m all for that. And if I believe doing something a certain gets to the end goal, I’m all for that. So, if we can both do something to move the needle to get to the end goal, great. I have no complaints with whatever it is she wants to do, or any woman athlete wants to do, or anyone who is trying to help drive their cause and what they want to be done. It doesn’t matter to me how we get there. What matters to me is that we get there.

“I’m not going to sit here and condemn her comments back to me, or what she’s done. I’m in full support of what she’s doing to help get to the end goal because that’s what I want to see happen and I want to help.”

Green tried to clarify that his point was they needed to get brands and large outlets to report more on the plans women have put together for how this all can work, which is the right place to point the finger, as it’s the lack of support and coverage that keeps women’s sports on the periphery. The issue is, Green still doesn’t seem to recognize the issue with saying the women who are calling for these changes are going about it the wrong way, because they have tried all manner of things to garner more coverage and get these things out into the public conscience, only to be ignored or not given a significant platform. For someone like Green, who has that platform and who gets that coverage when he says things like this, what they want is for him to listen first and be an advocate to push those plans, rather than standing up and loudly proclaiming his opinions without seeking their thoughts first.

That’s the issue at play, as there have been very few who think Green’s intent isn’t positive, but it’s the manner in which he’s going about it that’s a problem. A far more productive thing to do would have been to reach out privately to those women he tagged in his initial tweet thread and asked for their thoughts, heard their plans and ideas, and used his platform to voice them and give them the reach that they often aren’t afforded. He’s not wrong in some of what he’s saying, but he’s also missed the mark with other aspects and those detract from the overall message, which is pushing those with the power to invest in women’s sports, whether as sponsors or as a media outlet, to do so.