Former NBA star Gilbert Arenas raised eyebrows with a take about “ring culture” on “First Take” on Friday and is now coming under fire from Draymond Green for it.
The topic of “ring culture” came up thanks to LeBron James criticizing it on his “Mind The Game” podcast. James stated he does not know where the concept came from and made it clear that a title is a team accomplishment.
Arenas reacted to James\’ comments by claiming that the second option on a title-winning team doesn\’t get any respect for their contributions from the basketball world. He brought up Kobe Bryant as an example of that.
Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green (23) reacts after a play during Game 7 against the Houston Rockets at Toyota Center.
Troy Taormina-Imagn Images
Bryant helped the Los Angeles Lakers three-peat from 2000 to 2002 but didn\’t get much credit for it. Shaquille O\’Neal was the team\’s best player during that run (averaged 35.9 points per game in the three Finals series), and Bryant\’s contributions were minimized.
While Arenas received some support for his take, Green didn\’t agree with his comments. He put out a post on Threads to call out the non-champions who were speaking on the subject.
“A bunch of non-champions having championship conversations. This world we live in is crazy….,” Green wrote.
Arenas had an impressive NBA career, as he made three All-Star and three All-NBA teams, but he never won a title. Green doesn\’t think the likes of him should be having such conversations.
Arenas reacted to the post by claiming that the Golden State Warriors star should be thanking people like him for speaking up.
“U should thank us for the convo so second options and 3rds get a fair judgment,” Arenas replied. “Klay with 4 rings (left off the Top 75) Pippen has 6 rings and sits 32 all time 6 people in front of him with no rings WHY! not my opinion.. it\’s my research that exposed they don\’t respect second option rings!”
Arenas wasn\’t backing down, but Green made it clear that only someone who hadn\’t won a championship would care about such a conversation.
“There would never be a reason for me to thank y\’all about anything involving the game of basketball,” Green stated. “There’s also nothing you guys can say or topic y\’all can cover that can change anything for me when it comes to the game of basketball or NBA. Only someone who has never been a champion would think that’s a conversation that would ever matter. Your research was just missing one key perspective. A champion that understands what it means and take to do, so it’s just a tad bit flawed.”
Green has won four championships with the Warriors in 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2022. He has been the third or fourth option on those teams and isn\’t losing much sleep over that.