After playing 12 seasons in the NBA, Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green might have slightly lost touch with reality. That is to say, the 34-year-old has accumulated career earnings (including current contract), worth over $255 million, but says his job is not set up to be wealthy after he is done playing.
While on The Big Podcast with Shaq, Green shared his thoughts on the financial aspect of playing in the NBA, in which he feels they are taxed and fined unfairly.
“It’s actually not set up for us to be wealthy after we’re done playing.”
-Draymond Green on the NBA’s fines 👀💰 pic.twitter.com/9vCrSc5htm
— The Big Podcast (@bigpodwithshaq) May 24, 2024
"The fines to me don't make sense," Green said. "When you talk about, as hard as we work to accumulate wealth, coming from situations that most people never make it out of, and then you get fined the way that we get fined? It's actually not set up for us to be wealthy after we're done playing."
Green went on to say, "This job is not set up, the way we're taxed. The way we're fined. If I do something wrong, I lose $100,000. Man, it took my mom four years when I was growing up to make $100,000. And I lose that in a night because, what? The referee got mad at me, and he didn't like what I said to him, so I lose $5,000 like that, on a tech?"
Well, without stating the obvious, Green wouldn't have to worry about fines if he simply stayed out of trouble. Nevertheless, even when accounting for all of the money Green has lost from fines, it is around $900,000 when all added up. Not to mention an additional salary loss of around $3.2 million when you take into account all of his suspensions.
Still, the numbers don't seem to add up, as when you take into account his career earnings, being a quarter of a billion dollars, plus endorsements, Green surely should still have no problems putting some money away for retirement, even after writing the checks to the league office to pay off the many fines he has racked up over the course of his career.
As for the rest of the regular NBA players, who are not fortunate enough to get as big of contracts, they presumably should also be getting by just fine. To emphasize, the NBA is the highest paid professional sports league in the world, when one takes into consideration that the average salary for an NBA player during the 2023-2024 season was over $10 million (minimum salary of $1.12 million).
With this in mind, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute, and as cited in a A Sports Illustrated article, "78% of NFL players and 60% of NBA players face serious financial hardships after retirement."
However, for Green to blame this on the hand that feeds him, is not justifiable, as it is not the employer's fault that a player mismanages the millions they have earned from playing a sport for a living.
With that being said, maybe some fans can help set up a "GoFundMe" account for Green so he can get the assistance he needs to pay for his future taxes and fines, as one thing is for certain, Green will continue to tally up his suspensions. Notably, Green has 21 career ejections, which is the second-most all time in NBA history, to go along with 147 career technical fouls, and 15 career flagrant fouls.
Related: Draymond Green Is Back To Whacking Opponents
