Pickup basketball tends to get a bit elevated when your dad is a three-time NBA champion.
It was just recently, Golden State Warriors power forward Draymond Green recalled in an exclusive interview with E! News, that his 5-year-old son Draymond Green Jr. was sitting with him in the the locker room after practice as he chatted with teammates Juan Toscano-Anderson and Jordan Poole. "And DJ said, 'All right, Daddy, I'm going to rebound for Steph,'" the athlete shared, referencing the league's two-time MVP Stephen Curry. "And Juan was like, 'That's so crazy. He's just randomly talking about he's going to rebound for the greatest shooter that ever played the game of basketball.'"
What? Like it's hard?
"I know he doesn't quite understand it yet," Green, 32, allowed. "To him, it's like, 'Oh, I'm going to go rebound for Steph because it's fun for me.' Like, 'Dude, you're going to rebound for Steph Curry. That's such an incredible experience.'"
Of course, to the kindergartner, it's akin to, say, playing a computer game with Dad—something the 10-year NBA vet said is made exponentially easier with Amazon's new Glow device.
Estimating he's on the road some 130 days out of the year, Green noted how tricky it can be to Facetime with DJ and daughters Olive, 7, and Cash, 17 months. "You can imagine this is a lifesaver for us," the athlete shared of the gadget that allows for interactive play during video calls. "I miss a lot of time with my children. With the Glow device, it's helped bridge that gap, it's helped close those miles in between us."
Whether he's in Memphis or Minneapolis, Green explained, he can phone in and, with actress wife Hazel Renee guiding their brood, "We're playing these games together," the athlete detailed, "we're creating these jigsaw puzzles together, we're doing all of these things together. It helps so much from a family aspect and the struggles that some of us deal with when going away."
Because, no, his kids don't quite grasp the depth of Green's hustle, the four-time NBA All-Star supplementing his multimillion-dollar basketball income with more forward-thinking gigs, like his new role as an NBA analyst on TNT and host of his podcast, The Draymond Green Show.
"I definitely want to plan for my life after basketball," he said of eyeing a future filled with broadcast and analyst work. (Coaching, for now, holds no interest, he explained: "I've been on a basketball schedule my entire life. I'm not sure when I'm done playing basketball, that I still want to be on that same basketball schedule.")
Not that he isn't still enjoying his current act, predicting that if Curry and the rest of the team can get and stay healthy as the Warriors head into the NBA playoffs they "have a good chance of getting back to the finals and starting another run," but he wants to lay the groundwork for his post-playing days.
"I don't want to end the game wondering what's next," he explained, citing the advice he received from Warriors co-owner Peter Guber during his rookie season.
"He used to say, 'Draymond, right now there's a million doors open to you and you need to walk through those doors and foster those relationships now," the athlete explained of using his time in the league to build as many relationships as possible. "I kind of take that same approach to my life after basketball as far as a particular job goes: I'm walking through the door while it's open. And hopefully when I'm done playing, that door stays open."
And no matter what thresholds the Saginaw, Mich., native crosses, there's a good chance his little ones will be following close behind. At the Warriors' Chase Center in San Francisco, DJ "is all over the place," Green admitted. "He thinks everything belongs to him."
And there's a reason he feels so comfortable holding court. "It's funny because today we were actually walking into the facility for practice and I was on Facetime with my wife," the two-time Olympic gold medalist detailed. Holding the phone out in front of him, he laughed as the security staff and every other employee Green encountered yelled out a "DJ!" greeting.
"I'm just showing her like, 'You wonder why he loves coming to the gym—this is the reaction he gets when he walks in,'" he said of his conversation with Renee. "This is why when we're sitting at home and I tell him, 'Hey, you can't go to the gym today,' he says, 'No, everybody's here to see me!'"
Little DJ has certainly found ways to earn his keep, even caught on camera serving as an assistant on the bench during one December game.
"It's truly a special thing," Green raved. "It's something that I don't take for granted. I'm very appreciative of our front office, of our coaching staff and also our guys on the team that show him the love that they show him, make him feel like he's a part of everything, that will allow him to rebound for them and pass him the ball. Like, that's an experience that money can't buy. And I'm super thankful that I'm in a position to afford him those experiences."
Green predicts even more unparalleled occurrences in the future, sharing that he hopes his brood, along with Curry's kids—daughters Riley, 9, and Ryan, 6, and son Canon, 3—and Andrew Wiggins' daughters Amyah, 3, and Alayah, 12 months, might reignite the practice of tiny Warrior scrimmages that Zaza Pachulia and Andre Iguodala's children once engaged in.
"I think the next wave of kids are starting to come through," Green said, "and I'd be interested to see if that picks back up."
But first, Green has a little gameplay of his own.
When his Michigan State Spartans faced off against Curry's Davidson Wildcats in the first round of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament March 18, the two placed a bet that involved, among other things, Curry slipping into the Sparty mascot costume ahead of an upcoming game.
And that particular debt will be paid. "I would never give him the benefit of wearing the costume and he's not playing. And I definitely wouldn't give him the benefit of wearing the costume and it's not a national TV game," Green explained of why they have yet to select a date. "Now what I will say is, if he's not playing and he's going to wear the costume on the bench the whole game, then, all right, we can call it fair. But if he's just going to walk into the arena at whatever time he wants to because no cameras are waiting on him because they know he's not playing, we're not doing that."
Got that, Steph?
Though no matter when the time comes to slip into that full-body uniform, we can think of someone who might be willing to help him rebound from the experience.