Draymond Green Rejects Comparisons to Charles Barkley: 'F*ck No'

Draymond Green and Charles Barkley haven’t always seen eye-to-eye in the past. As recently as February, Green slammed Barkley on his podcast after hearing LeBron James unload on him.

"I’m all for destroying Barkley," Green said. "You know, Barkley talk a lot. A whole lot for a guy who has not won a championship…When it comes to speak about someone who has a championship, Barkley should be muted."

But despite their differences, there are some people who have compared Green’s style of play on the basketball court to the way Barkley used to play. And it sounds like it drives Green crazy. After the Warriors practiced for their upcoming playoff series against the Jazz on Sunday, Green was asked about the Barkley comparisons, and he flatly rejected them while differentiating himself from the Round Mound of Rebound.

"Hell no," he said. "I’m the modern-day Draymond Green. Fuck no."

Green also went on to explain that it was his family, not Barkley, who influenced him when he was growing up and helped turn him into the player he is today.

"[Chuck] told y’all in ’90-what that he wasn’t your kid’s role model anyway…so there you have it," Green said. "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."

And Green credited his mother in particular with playing a big role in his development.

"I was raised by Mary Babers," he said. "In the Babers family, that’s what you do. You speak your mind. It ain’t got nothing to do with Chuck. 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."

There are some people who will probably still compare Green to Barkley, despite his most recent comments. But it’s clear Green doesn’t appreciate it when people put his name in the same sentence as the former NBA star.