Draymond Green Wants The Stats He’s Earned

People have far too much time on their hands and therefore a conspiracy theory recently surfaced suggesting Memphis Grizzlies big man Jaren Jackson Jr. was benefitting from inflated blocks thanks to a friendly hometown scorer. Those who bothered to do the work of watching the plays in question were forced into one conclusion: that there’s absolutely nothing to the theory. But it’s a thing now and facts don’t matter on the road toward content.

Draymond Green, basketball player and podcaster extraordinaire, built upon the topic for his show on The Volume. And though he was smart enough not to commit any Spartan-on-Spartan crime in questioning Jackson Jr.’s numbers, he did admit to wanting proper credit for all the sparkling defensive plays he makes that sometimes go unrewarded.

One on hand, this is totally fair. Who among us does not want to be recognized for our stellar efforts at work? On the other, I would be perfectly happen if stat inflation or stat deflation was a topic that never, ever came across my desk again. Any time it comes up one can hear the faint sounds of some of the world’s tiniest violins working their way through a very pitiful song.

This is one of those cases where the eye test is important. Both Green and Jackson Jr. are tremendous defenders. No one needs a stat sheet to understand that. If a few extra blocks or steals are going to change how they’re viewed then it’s a bigger failing than an official scorer failing to appreciate a miniscule deflection.