'Destroying Those Kids': Draymond Green Isn’t Ready to Give Up Basketball Dream Despite Son’s Soccer Love

So many parents have pushed their kids to do something largely because they enjoyed doing it when they were kids. In sports, there comes a moment that speaks to you in a way nothing else can, leading to an unbreakable bond. Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green experienced that phenomenon with basketball and wants that for his son. His son’s affinity, however, is towards another sport.

Green has accomplished nearly everything any basketball player strives to achieve. He is a four-time NBA champion, four-time All-Star and 2017 Defensive Player of the Year. Basketball is for all intents and purposes part of his soul at this point. It is who he is.

Despite the love of basketball within his veins, his son DJ doesn’t feel the same. The eight-year-old is Green’s eldest son. Assumingly so, Green would love for his son to follow in his footsteps. Nonetheless, he has gone down a different path as soccer is his sport of choice. Regardless, Green isn’t giving up hope just yet.

“My eight-year-old plays soccer, and he only wants to play soccer,” Green said on Jimmy Kimmel Live. “But his friend had a party last weekend at a fieldhouse and they played [basketball],” Green said. “He was destroying those kids. I couldn’t believe it.”

The 13-year NBA veteran couldn’t allow the opportunity to pass him by. He took his chance to gauge his son’s interest in pushing to grow in basketball. After all, Green knows a thing or two about how to be successful on a basketball court. Green’s son was still uninterested.

“I tried to have the conversation on the way home, like, ‘Hey D.J., you know if you really want to take basketball serious, I can help you be really good. I kind of got the cheat code,” Green said. “And he’s like, ‘Yeah, I play soccer. Only soccer.'”

Draymond claimed he would let his son make his own decisions for now. However, he joked that at some point he may have to change his approach. After all, Tiger Woods only became a golfer because of his father constantly forced him to, and he is the best there’s ever been.

DJ still has plenty of time to enjoy his childhood and do things which he enjoys. Nonetheless, if basketball ever pulls on his heart, his father will be there to nurture that love into a potentially potent basketball career.