Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green fired back at Chris “Mad Dog” Russo after saying that America was tired of Green and for him to “shut up and play.”
Russo made the comments on ESPN’s “First Take” this week in a discussion on how Green has carried himself during his career.
Former player and current analyst JJ Redick took exception to Russo’s comments and said, “The people on FOX News talk about athletes that way. That’s my issue.”
Green didn’t hesitate to speak on his podcast, “The Draymond Green Show“, to address the comments.
“Yesterday, he goes on TV and he says ‘America is tired of Draymond Green.’ He then proceeds to say ‘shut up and play,’ ” Green said. “I’m not one to really pull a race card very often because I think we all know the role that race plays in a world that we live in, but that definitely had a racist connotation.
“Those ‘shut up and play’, ‘shut up and dribble’ days those are long gone,” Green said. “We don’t listen to that anymore, we don’t want to hear it anymore. It has no place here, nor will it be tolerated.”
Green, who is a four-time NBA All-Star, went on to say that people like Russo who haven’t played the game are going to start to get tuned out.
“You will no longer be allowed to sit there and say what you want, you will no longer be allowed to put out these false narratives, you will no longer be allowed to not know what you’re talking about and we’re going to listen to you,” Green said. “Those days are long gone. You know why? Because we have guys like JJ Redick who’s done it, who speaks it, who knows how to speak on any different topic, who’s not afraid to shut an idiot up.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Draymond Green: Chris Russo’s comments had ‘racist connotation’