Draymond Green cites Andre Drummond as he destroys NBA’s treatment of players

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Andre Drummond’s time with the Cleveland Cavaliers has most likely come to an end.

The Cavs are actively shopping the disgruntled center. While trade talks are going on, the Cavs have decided that Drummond will not suit up for the team.

This recent development apparently did not sit well with Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green.

After the Cavs lost to the Warriors on Monday night, Green voiced out his displeasure about what he perceives to be a double standard in the NBA. He cited Drummond’s case, as well as those of other players, to blast the league’s treatment of its players.

“To watch Andre Drummond before the game, sit on the sidelines, then go to the back, and to come out in street clothes because a team is going to trade him, it’s bulls—,” ranted Green during the postgame news conference. “Because when James Harden asked for a trade and essentially dogged it, I don’t think there was no surprise [and] no one’s going to fight back that James was dogging it his last days in Houston, but he was castrated for wanting to go to a different team. Everybody destroyed that man. Yet a team can come out and say, ‘Oh, we want to trade a guy,’ and then that guy has to go sit. If he doesn’t stay professional, then he’s a cancer, he’s not good in someone’s locker room, and he’s the issue.

“We’ve seen situations of Harrison Barnes getting pulled off the bench, or DeMarcus Cousins finding out that he’s traded in an interview after the All-Star Game, and we continue to let this happen. But I got fined for stating my opinion on what I thought should happen with another player. But teams can come out and continue to say, ‘Oh, we’re trading guys, we’re not playing you.’ Yet we’re to stay professional.

“At some point, as players, we need to be treated with the same respect and have the same rights that the team can have. Because as a player, you’re the worst person in the world when you want a different situation. But a team can say they’re trading you, and that man has to stay in shape. He has to stay professional, and if not, his career is on the line. At some point, this league has to protect the players from embarrassment like that.

“We talk all of this stuff about, ‘You can’t do this, you can’t say that publicly.’ Anthony Davis got fined, I think, $100,000 or something like that for demanding a trade publicly. But you can say Andre Drummond’s getting traded publicly, and we’re looking to trade him publicly, and he’s to stay professional and just deal with it?”

It is unfortunate that the Drummond situation has come to this, especially after the team’s solid start to the season. Hopefully, a resolution — via trade or buyout — arrives soon.

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Orel is a freelance writer who is passionate about the NBA. He has followed the league since the late '90s and found increased interest in it in 2003 – when an 18-year-old prodigy from Akron, Ohio took the league by storm.