Draymond Green Gives LeBron Props for Changing Free Agency

Golden State's Draymond Green has only known one team during his NBA career, but Kevin Durant's arrival last season allowed him to see first-hand what kind of backlash star players deal with when switching sides. The drama didn't end up mattering that much on the court: the Warriors won the NBA Finals in convincing fashion, clearly unbothered by any criticism of their assembly of a super team.

More and more players are working together to form similar partnerships, as we saw with Chris Paul joining James Harden in Houston this summer. With LeBron James on the verge of making another huge free-agency decision, Green believes the Cavaliers icon deserves credit for changing the conversation around these decisions, which he told reporters at a Tuesday event where the Warriors unveiled new jerseys sponsored by Rakuten.

LeBron's upper-case Decision was a landmark event in a lot of ways—who else have you seen hold a TV special for a free-agency announcement?—but it probably doesn't get the credit it deserves for taking the burden off of a lot of other players who have fled their former teams for greener pastures. Durant faced a ton of backlash for his decision, and will likely continue to do so for the rest of his career.

But the peer pressure is not anywhere near as intense as it once was. You can see part of the culture change in the offseason, when NBA players from across the league are spotted working out together in the offseason, assembling in various gyms and then posing for pictures together when it's all said and done.