Home » Hustle Award Or Pacifier? How The NBA Kept Draymond Green (Almost) Happy

Hustle Award Or Pacifier? How The NBA Kept Draymond Green (Almost) Happy

by Len Werle
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When the NBA announced Cleveland Cavaliers forward Evan Mobley as the Defensive Player of the Year for 2024-25, Golden State’s Draymond Green must have felt a familiar twinge of competitive rage. Green had openly campaigned for DPOY honors all season, only to finish third in the voting behind Mobley and upstart guard Dyson Daniels.

Yet scarcely some hours later, the league handed Green a different piece of hardware – the NBA Hustle Award, a trophy so comparatively obscure it almost feels custom-made to soothe wounded egos. In fact, the timing and title of this award made it seem like a consolation prize to keep Draymond from absolutely losing it over the DPOY snub . Coincidence? The NBA might claim it is, but fans online certainly weren’t buying it.

One way to calm a storm. For those unfamiliar with it, the NBA Hustle Award is essentially the league’s annual recognition for the guy who does all the thankless dirty work. It’s determined not by media votes or fan ballots, but by a souped-up stat sheet tracking things like charges drawn, deflections, loose balls recovered, and other gritty plays that don’t show up in a typical box score .

In other words, it’s the league’s way of saying, “We see you hustling out there.” This year, Green ranked in the top 15 in five different hustle categories and amazingly was the first player ever to rank inside the top 40 in all nine categories that determine the award . By the metrics, he legitimately earned the honor – and earned a quirky place in NBA history. Green is only the second player (after Boston’s Marcus Smart) to have won both a Defensive Player of the Year award and a Hustle Award in his career . That’s elite company, albeit in a very niche club.

Still, let’s be real: the Hustle Award is not nearly as prestigious as the Defensive Player of the Year . DPOY is a marquee award (complete with its own shiny Hakeem Olajuwon Trophy and a legacy of legends), while the Hustle Award is more like a merit badge for NBA grinders. Previous Hustle winners are a rogues’ gallery of scrappy role players – Marcus Smart (a three-time winner), Patrick Beverley, Montrezl Harrell, Thaddeus Young, Amir Johnson, Alex Caruso… hardworking guys, but not exactly headliners . By adding Draymond to their ranks, the NBA basically said,

“Sorry you didn’t get the big one, but hey, you’re our hustle king!”

As one fan quipped on social media,

“They knew they robbed him of that DPOY so they gave him a pity award.” Another joked that the league “robbed bro of DPOY and gave him a made up accolade. The internet’s verdict? This was a “pity prize” if ever there was one.

Green, of course, isn’t publicly pouting about the DPOY results – at least not yet. Ever the loyal teammate, he’s likely taking solace in the fact that he’ll almost certainly make First Team All-Defense and that someone appreciated his impact.

After all, Draymond has made a career out of doing the little things that don’t always show up in headlines: switching onto any position, blowing up opponents’ plays, diving for loose balls, and generally making life miserable for whoever he’s guarding. The Hustle Award definition could have had his name in it. It literally honors players who make effort plays that “help determine team success” beyond the box score – a description tailor-made for Green’s game.

If anyone deserves an award for hustle, it’s Draymond Green – not just for his defensive IQ, but for the full-contact energy he brings to the court. This is a guy who once tallied a triple-double without scoring 10 points, simply by stuffing every other column of the stat sheet. His intensity is the stuff of legend. On defense, Green is equal parts field general and tazmanian devil – barking out coverages, rotating on a string, bodying up big men, and pestering perimeter players. The Warriors’ defensive schemes have long been built around his versatility and passion. It’s no surprise he’s been in DPOY conversations almost every year; in fact, 2024-25 marked the ninth time in his career he’s received votes for that award (with one win back in 2017) . So when he openly stated mid-season that DPOY was his goal, nobody laughed – he was dead serious, and he nearly pulled it off.

But with Draymond, that same fire that fuels his greatness also fuels some truly headline-grabbing antics. We’re talking about a player whose “history of unsportsmanlike acts” is literally cited by the league itself . When Green feels disrespected or things aren’t going his way, the results can be explosive. Need a few examples? A previous season’s playoffs saw him stomp on the chest of Sacramento’s Domantas Sabonis during a scuffle, earning a one-game suspension and adding to his long list of infamous incidents . Last season, he managed to get himself suspended five games for putting Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert in a chokehold from behind – a WWF-style headlock delivered in the middle of an NBA game . (Gobert had merely tried to play peacemaker in a brief skirmish, but Draymond saw a Timberwolves jersey on his teammate and instinct kicked in – literally.) Green later told reporters he had “no regrets” about the Gobert incident, framing it as just defending his teammate . That’s classic Draymond: protective, a bit unhinged, and utterly unapologetic.

And who could forget his greatest hits (or hits on others)? The man has kicked Steven Adams in the groin, swung at LeBron’s jewels during the NBA Finals, and racked up enough technical fouls to fill a referee’s highlight reel . By one count, Green has been tagged with 27 technicals and 6 flagrants in his playoff career – and that was before this year . He’s been ejected, suspended, and fined more times than the Warriors care to recall. Heck, he even infamously punched his own teammate Jordan Poole during a practice in 2022, an incident that leaked on video and dominated news cycles for weeks . In short, Draymond’s temper is as much a part of his legacy as his defense. It’s no wonder that even notorious instigators like Dillon Brooks (hardly a choirboy himself) feel comfortable labeling Green a “dirty player” in the press . When the NBA’s resident pest calls you the dirty one, you know your reputation precedes you.

All of this context paints the picture: Draymond Green is intense, proud, and not exactly the type to take disappointment lying down. So one has to chuckle at the idea of the NBA practically baby-proofing its awards season to keep Dray from flying off the handle. The scenario writes itself in a tongue-in-cheek way: Adam Silver and company, wary of a potential Draymond meltdown, quickly slide over a freshly minted Hustle Award.

“See, Draymond? We appreciate you! Please don’t kick anyone in the ribs or rant on your podcast about anti-Warriors bias.”

It might sound silly – and certainly the league would never admit to such appeasement – but the optics are hilarious. Green badly wanted DPOY and narrowly missed it… and bam, here comes an email from the NBA office congratulating him on being the “hustle guy” of the year. To be fair, the Hustle Award has been around since 2017, so it’s not as if they invented an award out of thin air this week just to calm him down. Yet the timing had impeccable comedic timing. Even the official NBA news release (in the most deadpan, PR-friendly way) acknowledged it as a “nice consolation prize” after Green fell short of his DPOY goal . Translation:

“We know you’re upset, but here’s something to chew on.”

The NBA, of course, benefits from a motivated Draymond Green – just not an unhinged one. A ticked-off Draymond might translate to must-see TV, but it also risks fines, fights, and PR headaches. By tossing him this bone, the league likely figured it would highlight Green’s strengths and douse any conspiracy flames before they caught fire. And if we’re being cynical, it also makes the DPOY voting results a little easier for Warriors fans to swallow. “Sure, Mobley won DPOY,” a Golden State fan might say, “but Dray got the Hustle Award, which proves he does all the little things!” It’s a classic piece of NBA politics: keep the outspoken veteran happy, give the rising star his shine, and avoid becoming the subject of Draymond’s next fiery tirade.

In the end, everyone plays along. Green will happily hold up his Hustle hardware, claim it validates his all-out playing style, and crack a joke about how “hustle” is just a fancy word for doing whatever it takes to win. And you know what? He’s not wrong. Love him or loathe him, Draymond Green is all about winning. If a slightly tongue-in-cheek consolation prize is the price to keep one of the game’s fiercest competitors appeased, the NBA will pay it every time. After all, it’s better to hand Draymond a small trophy now than have to hand out suspensions later. In the hustle and bustle of the NBA, sometimes keeping the peace is the greatest hustle of all. 

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