A Spartan homer’s guide on when and when not to defend Draymond Green

This Draymond guy sure knows how to ruffle feathers, huh?

No one knows the NBA’s most polarizing player better than MSU fans, and no one knows when to defend his antics like Spartan fans, either. With a guy as outspoken and eccentric as Draymond, there’s a lot of times fans have to defend him.

Luckily for you, we’ve put together a brief guide of when we should all defend him and when we probably can’t. Let’s brush the quick stuff out of the way.

When it’s hard to defend him

1. When he kicks people in the nads: Draymond. We love you. But come on, no one can defend this. Luckily that’s calmed down this year.

2. The other thing he did that relates to below the belt: Yeah, we’re talking about the Snapchat thing. All well, he still has a hilarious Snapchat.

Alright, we’re done here.

When to defend him

Literally every other time. Let’s just run through them all one by one.

1. His style of play: We didn’t fall in love with Draymond because he was Mr. Rogers on the court. Or because he spoke to others like Mother Theresa. Or because he led as calmly as Dalai Lama. We love him for the loud, relentless player he is.

Yeah, he plays a little dirty, but you don’t because one of the best defensive players in basketball without having a little bit of a “f*** you” attitude out there. He seems to be over the kicking thing, but we’re glad his tenacity hasn’t left him yet.

He’s the same player today that he was in college – a true team player that plays whatever role he needs to produce wins. For some reason that bothers a few people, but we’re here for it.

Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

2. His attitude: Anyone else see old man Dick Vitale rip on Draymond the other day? How he’s saying Draymond’s attitude has changed since his MSU days and how he couldn’t play for Izzo today?

Get that straight out of here. His attitude has changed from scrappy, outspoken leader at MSU to…scrappy, outspoken leader in The Bay? Wow, huge change there Vitale. And I’m willing to bet Draymond’s salary that Izzo would do anything to have a Draymond-type player and leader on his team again.

Someone take the Twitter keys out of Vitale’s hands. Green’s attitude is what makes him the coveted player he is today.

3. His quotes in the media: Oh, so we’re supposed to dog a guy for being honest? Just in the last week he’s had some gems, saying he “thought (Jazz fans) would be louder” or they “aren’t very smart” for daring him to shoot the ball.

No one here is going to apologize for Draymond saying a playoff atmosphere could have been louder. Or questioning why they would want him to shoot when he was draining 3-pointers at a rate north of 50 percent.

Calling out Kelly Olynyk for being dirty is also hilarious too. Is the pot calling the kettle black? Sure, but who cares? Olynyk tried to treat Kevin Love’s arm like a Mr. Potato Head attachment not too long ago, let’s not forget that.

Pool Photo-USA TODAY Sports

4. His trash talk: I hate trash talk when a) players don’t back it up and b) when it’s not entertaining. Our prodigal son a) backs it up and b) is pretty funny when it goes down.

Remember when he hit Paul Pierce with “You can’t get no farewell tour. They don’t love you like that … You thought you was Kobe.”

He was right on the money. Let’s be honest, maybe four people were sad to see Pierce’s final game.

He doesn’t care if you’re a rookie or a vet – he’ll let you know how he feels.

It’s impossible to hate Draymond. Keep making Spartan Nation proud big fella – we got your back.