Draymond Green says it’s disrespectful to compare mental challenge of facing Celtics to LeBron James

Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green had some major praise for Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James when asked about facing the Boston Celtics in the 2022 NBA Finals.

Green, who faced James in the NBA Finals four times with the Warriors, said that it was “disrespectful” to compare facing James to facing Boston.

He also referred to James as possibly the “smartest guy to set foot on a basketball court.”

Even though the Celtics have put up a solid fight in the NBA Finals, winning two of the first five games, Green knows that facing James was a whole different level of basketball.

James went 1-3 in his four NBA Finals appearances against Green’s Warriors, but he had to face a team that had Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson in two of those four trips.

The biggest accomplishment for James came in the 2016 NBA Finals when he led the Cleveland Cavaliers back from a 3-1 series deficit to ultimately defeat the Warriors in Game 7 and win the series.

The Lakers got a small taste of just how dominant James can be in their run to a title in the 2019-20 season.

Los Angeles is hoping that James still has enough left in the tank to bring the franchise back to the top of the NBA next season.

Despite injuries in the 2021-22 season, James still put up amazing numbers. He averaged 30.3 points, 8.2 rebounds and 6.2 assists per game while shooting 52.4 percent from the field and 35.9 percent from beyond the arc.

As for Green and the Warriors, they are looking to win their fourth NBA title in the last eight seasons when they take on the Celtics in Game 6 on Thursday night in Boston.