Say this for Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors: The money has not softened his sharp edges.
As the 35th pick of the 2012 draft, Green famously memorized the names of the 34 players chosen ahead of him as a self-motivational mind trick, a way to ensure the chip on his shoulder was appropriately heavy as he proceeded to prove wrong a league’s worth of scouting staffs. Never mind that he has long proven to be a better player than all but a handful of those 34 — the likes of Anthony Davis and Damian Lillard and Bradley Beal the rare exceptions to his odds-defying rise.