Draymond Green Slams Josh Hart For Criticizing His Opinion on Jalen Brunson’s $113 Million Pay Cut

Draymond Green criticized Jalen Brunson for taking a pay cut something he felt role players such as Josh Hart should do.

Draymond Green Slams Josh Hart For Criticizing His Opinion on Jalen Brunson’s $113 Million Pay Cut

Draymond Green and Josh Hart (Image via FirstSportz)

There is no doubt that Jalen Brunson taking a $113 million pay cut helped him, Josh Hart, and the New York Knicks win the 2026 NBA championship. Since then, veteran stars such as Draymond Green, LeBron James, and others were expected to do the same.

The latter did his part after signing a two-year, $8 million deal with the Philadelphia 76ers. That was a drastic drop from the over $53 million he was earning last season with the Los Angeles Lakers.

The topic of pay cuts came up on social media when a video of the former Defensive Player of the Year appeared. It was where he opined on how Brunson taking a pay cut did not make sense to him. Hart saw this clip and decided to call him out.

We got to normalize grown men not counting other peoples pockets.

Josh Hart wrote on X

Draymond Green is not active on that platform, but did see screenshots of this comment on Threads. That led him to write this:

Dude waited 2 years to respond to that video from 520? Why not say it then? Let’s normalize not front-running and talking while you up. Be on the same type of time AT ALL TIMES!

Draymond Green wrote
Green on Threads
Green on Threads

This was the 36-year-old slamming Hart for responding to an opinion made two years ago. Green felt that this proved that the Knicks forward only got the guts to speak up since they are now champions.

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What did Draymond Green say that ticked off Josh Hart?

This back-and-forth between Draymond Green and Josh Hart came about after that clip appeared on X. In fact, that clip is not recent. Rather, it dates back to 2024, when Jalen Brunson famously took a pay cut to help the Knicks build a championship-contending roster.

Draymond Green and Stephen Curry
Green and Stephen Curry (Image via Legion Hoops/X)

It’s the New York Knicks, bro. They can afford it. You ain’t got to take no discount… My situation is different because Steph making $270 million, Klay making $180 million. All right, something got to give. Cool. I can take a less. He the top guy. Let Josh Hart or somebody else take less. They in my role. Guess what, Steph Curry ain’t take a penny less. And neither did Klay Thompson ain’t take a penny less… I don’t know what he doing… That’s $100 million.

Green said

The Warriors star felt that Brunson was wrong to take the pay cut. As the leading superstar, he should have picked up the full value of the contract, while the others should have accepted less.

That is what he claims he has done throughout his career, whereas his illustrious teammates took the maximum deals available. It seems that suggesting that Josh Hart and the other Knicks role players should have taken less is what ticked off the 2026 champion.

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Draymond Green did not ask for a raise on his newest contract

On the topic of pay cuts, Draymond Green was seemingly ready to do his bit if LeBron James decided to join him and Stephen Curry on the Warriors. To do that, he first declined his $27.7 million player option for the upcoming season.

Flush with that money, the team signed back some of their key contributors from last season, but eventually failed to lure James. After the latter confirmed he was going back to the Eastern Conference, Green and his team sat down to renegotiate his contract.

The nine-time All-Defensive teamer could have asked for more, considering he has proved to be extremely crucial to their playoff hopes. However, he decided not to take a raise and signed on the dotted line to a one-year deal that will pay him the same $27.7 million he was supposed to earn initially.

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