Draymond Green grills Ja Morant at All-Star Game

Draymond Green is a smart, aggressive player who always looks to exploit the opposing team’s weaknesses. He’s not all that different as an interviewer.

The Warriors power forward worked All-Star Weekend in his side job as a TNT reporter, not be confused with his side job as a podcaster. That meant he was responsible for in-game interviews for the alternate, “Inside The All Star Game” broadcast featuring Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley, and Shaquille O’Neal riffing, squabbling, eating snacks, and occasionally describing the game action.

When it came time to interview the Memphis Grizzlies’ Ja Morant, Green seized the opportunity to tweak his rival over his December comments that he was “fine in the West.”

Like many times that a member of the Grizzlies talks trash, the comments backfired. After Memphis went on an 11-game win streak, they lost eight out of nine games and fell five games behind the Denver Nuggets in the West. Naturally, Draymond asked him about it.

“Are you still fine in the West?” Draymond asked Morant, adding, “And also, which teams are you looking at and thinking, that team has to be reckoned with?”

Morant gave a diplomatic answer, mentioning Kevin Durant and the new-look Phoenix Suns, along with the Warriors. Ultimately, Ja stuck to his guns, as Draymond laughed and said, “Still fine in the West. gotta love it.”

The Grizzlies star probably expected the “Fine in the West” line of questioning. Draymond’s not the first to ask about it, though he surely did it in front of the largest audience. What he might not have expected was Green needling him about his ever-present father, Tee Morant, who trains Ja and also regularly beefs with opposing players and even fans like Shannon Sharpe.

Draymond asked Ja if he was going to continue working with his father, with the tone of his question clearly implying that an NBA All-Star should have moved on from relying on his parent so heavily.

On Saturday night during the dunk contest, Green openly challenged Morant to do the dunk contest next year.

That’s the problem Morant ran into getting into a war of words with Draymond. He has a microphone a lot more often than Morant, and he’s very good - professionally good - at being entertaining and critical on television. While this probably stung Morant, at least Draymond didn’t ask him if he brought any lasers to Salt Lake City.