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Knicks Insider Shares Alarming Draymond Green Thought

The fact that some New York Knicks warmly greeted Draymond Green after a recent game didn't sit well with some fans.

Geoff Magliocchetti

Mar 15, 2025; San Francisco, California, USA; New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns (32) controls the basketball against Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green (23) during the third quarter at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images
Mar 15, 2025; San Francisco, California, USA; New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns (32) controls the basketball against Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green (23) during the third quarter at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images / Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images
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Some viewers found the New York Knicks' recent exchange of pleasantries with Draymond Green to be anything but.

When the Knicks dropped a 97-94 decision to the Golden State Warriors on March 15, some New Yorkers warmly greeted Bay Area star Draymond Green in the immediate aftermath. Those involved were criticized for doing so amidst Green's ongoing animosity with Knicks star Karl-Anthony Towns, who had immediately walked off the Chase Center floor.

SNY Knicks insider Ian Begley offered a two-pronged take on the affair when it came up in a fan mailbag video. While Begley acknowledged "potential disconnection," he did not that the incident occurred in an NBA landscape far different from the cutthroat environment of the 1980s and 1990s.

"It just speaks to kind of this era of the NBA where players are friendly. That's just how it is," Begley said. "...Genuine relationships are formed between these guys and not just in the league. AAU basketball, competing nationally at the high school level, those relationships that were forged then, I think, stay the course. Guys are friendlier, just generally, in this generation of the league."

Begley did feel, however, that the handshakes "[spoke] a little to the Knick locker room not being fully connected with each other."

"This is just my opinion: if everyone's fully connected, I think everybody would walk back to the tunnel the way Karl Towns did, without having a long conversation with Draymond Green, after what had happened," Begley said, stressing that it could he could well be wrong about the "disconnected thing."

Green went viral for suggesting that Towns had skipped a prior game against the Warriors to avoid a matchup with former teammate Jimmy Butler, who was traded to Golden State at the deadline. Towns, listed as out due to personal reasons, was actually on a bereavement leave after his girlfriend Jordyn Woods lost a close friend. Green has yet to formally apologize for the baseless accusation.

Leading into the second matchup, Towns teammate Josh Hart said that the Knicks were done with Green's tomfoolery and praised the way that the All-Star center peacefully handled the situation.

“I think KAT handled it the right way," Hart said, per Stefan Bondy of the New York Post. "For me I have my own podcast and all that stuff. Whenever I’m wrong about something I’ll sit there and say I was (wrong). For me, I wish he kind of did that, just apologized. You don’t got to be embarrassed or feel like apologizing is when you’re wrong isn’t manly. I wish he did. Now that’s in the past and we’re moving on.”

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Geoff Magliocchetti
GEOFF MAGLIOCCHETTI

Editor-In-Chief at All Knicks

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