Every NBA team should have a Designated Heel like Draymond Green

I have a confession to make as a Boston sports fan: I love Draymond Green.

This is controversial given that Green’s main role in the Golden State Warriors’ win over the Boston Celtics in this year’s NBA finals was to do everything in his power to get under the team’s skin. The truth is that the league needs its trolls – and Green has spent his post-championship victory lap cementing his status as its alpha disruptor.

Most players would be happy to bask in the glow of a title victory, but Green won’t be satisfied until he drinks the tears of his foes. So, of course, he’s not letting the Memphis Grizzlies off the hook just because the Warriors eliminated them more than a month ago. Back on 28 March, the Grizzlies’ Jaren Jackson Jr trolled the Warriors by tweeting the phrase “strength in numbers” after a regular-season victory.

Golden State guard Klay Thompson was the first to bring that tweet up after the Warriors clinched their fourth championship in eight years last week, using a press conference to call Jackson a “freaking bum.” Memphis’s Ja Morant went to Twitter to suggest that his team was still living in the Warriors’ heads (which may be a valid point). That was a tactical mistake, because the Warriors promptly unleashed their not-so-secret weapon in a war of words: Green, who went scorched-earth on the Grizzlies’ young star.

We traded that real estate in @JaMorant the property value was higher in Boston https://t.co/X7Du6zSiZF

The champs play at home Young! Christmas Day… LJ