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The Golden State Warriors were head over heels for Draymond Green, loving him from the point he worked out for the team as a tweening 6-foot-7 forward from Michigan State.
Yet the organization took a major risk by waiting until the second round to draft him, something owner Joe Lacob openly acknowledges:
“It was a great three-headed draft with Harrison Barnes and Festus Ezeli,” Lacob said of the Warriors’ two first-round selections, according to Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic. “But Draymond proved to be one of the luckiest things to ever happen to us. Don’t get me wrong. We all loved him in the draft. Loved him. His workout was legendary. But we took a big risk thinking we could get him at No. 35 in the second round. And we scored.
It was Lacob's then-girlfriend and now-wife Nicole Curran who insistently pushed the boss man to draft the jack of all trades from Saginaw, Michigan:
“Great diligence by our staff. Great. Another funny anecdote — my fiancé at the time, Nicole, now my wife, pressured me incessantly about drafting him,” said Lacob. “She hardly ever comes to draft workouts but did see Draymond. She loved him and still claims responsibility for us drafting him.”
Green was the lone piece from that 2012 NBA Draft who remains, despite being drafted last among the three selections. Harrison Barnes went to the Dallas Mavericks after the Warriors fell short in 2015-16, while Ezeli signed with the Portland Trail Blazers that same summer, only to never play a game for them due to a series of injury complications.
