Draymond Green says DeMar DeRozan told him 'F*** no' when asked to join the Warriors last offseason
The Golden State Warriors didn't make too many waves last offseason while constructing what would be a championship roster, but Draymond Green was apparently gunning for a big splash.
During an episode of his "Draymond Green Show" with Chicago Bulls star DeMar DeRozan, Green recounted how he tried to recruit his guest to the Warriors during free agency last summer.
DeRozan was apparently uninterested, though Green did not hesitate to point out that it all worked out for Golden State:
"Last year, free agency, talking to you every day like, 'Yo, you good? What about this, what about that?' Then the conversation turned to 'Come to the Warriors' and you were like, 'F***, no. I'm not coming there. I'm not coming to play with y'all.'
"I'm like, 'Bruh, you come to the Warriors, we can win a championship if you come to the Warriors.' He didn't come. We still won a championship, but he didn't come. I had to throw that one out there."
DeRozan confirmed Green's account of what went down as accurate. He didn't explain exactly why he turned down the Warriors.
You would imagine the big reason would be financial. DeRozan ended up joining the Bulls on a three-year, $85 million sign-and-trade agreement, which would probably not have worked for the notoriously luxury tax-laden Warriors.
Green recalled his offer to DeRozan was more than the veteran's minimum, which is what the Warriors ended up paying for names like Otto Porter, Nemenja Bjelica and Andre Iguodala. Green specifically took issue with certain commentators saying DeRozan would have needed to sign for the minimum to find his next home, a worry DeRozan himself said crossed his mind:
"That summer, going into free agency, it didn't go as planned. That brought so much doubt and put me in a dark place because I started to question, like, 'Where am I going now? What player am I going to be?' So many of these questions start to creep in. Big names always sign in the first day or two. A couple days into free agency, I was still such a question mark. Was I going to go somewhere on a one-year deal, was I going to take the minimum?
"The narrative put me in a f***ed up place. I remember through that whole time, there was three or four days I didn't leave the room. I didn't see the sun set, I didn't see the sun come up. I was depressed, it put me in a depressed mindset because I didn't know what the f*** was going to happen. Was I going to come to L.A.? That didn't happen."
DeRozan's sojourn into free agency was a rocky one, especially after a flirtation with the Los Angeles Lakers ended up going nowhere after the team instead went for Russell Westbrook. We all know how that worked out for the Lakers, while DeRozan did just fine for himself in Chicago.
After an underrated few years in San Antonio, DeRozan broke out last season averaging 27.9 points, 5.2 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game, leading the Bulls to a 46-36 record, their best in seven years.
