On Monday evening, Draymond Green made his return for the Golden State Warriors following his recent suspension for a cheap shot at Phoenix Suns big man Jusuf Nurkic. Although Green played relatively well in his return to the court, the Warriors still were unable to take advantage of a road matchup against an undermanned Memphis Grizzlies squad, ultimately losing by a final score of 116-107.
One player who shined for the Grizzlies was rookie GG Jackson II, the youngest player in the NBA at 19 years old, who scored 23 points and grabbed six rebounds in the Memphis victory.
Now, Draymond Green is shedding light on why the matchup with the Warriors was quite personal for GG Jackson, perhaps explaining his standout performance
“[GG Jackson] waited for Steph at the half court line. He said, ‘Man, I got uninvited from your camp.’ Steph was like, ‘I remember that.’ … I learned that it was very personal for GG,” said Green, via The Volume Sports on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Whatever the motivating factor may have been, the Warriors certainly had a W on their mind when they saw the Grizzlies, playing without Ja Morant, Desmond Bane, Brandon Clarke, Steven Adams, and others, on their schedule. Instead, the Warriors dropped four games below .500 at 18-22, now out of the Western Conference playoff picture altogether.
Up next, Golden State will try to get back on track with a road game against the Utah Jazz on January 17. That game is slated to tip off at 9:00 PM ET.