OAKLAND – There aren’t many places that Draymond Green can walk down the street unmolested. He’s one of the most high-profile players on one of the most high-profile teams on the globe, autograph seekers are everywhere.
Tuesday morning Green told media Japan – for the most part – is still one of those places.
“I was walking in the bullet train station just walking through, like cruising,” Green said. “And I’m like, ‘Man I don’t know the last time in my life I’ve been able to walk through a place like this and just go.’”
Green took a trip to Japan in September at the invitation of Rakuten chairman Hiroshi Mikitani to help grow the NBA game. He said that the country’s basketball fandom still has so much room for growth, but the fans that were there were complete fanatics.
“I was like leaving the hotel and see somebody that would ask for an autograph. Then I would go somewhere else and they would beat me there and be outside asking for autographs. Like A, how do you know where I’m going … and how did you beat me?
“That was incredible. Little creepy … but incredible.”
With the current rate at which the league’s popularity is expanding it wouldn’t be surprising if Japan hopped on the basketball bandwagon in the coming years. That would certainly mean more fans of the Warriors, and more fans of the team’s vocal leader.
Just hopefully not of the creepy variety.