Draymond Green Compares Jalen Brunson's Impact to Steph Curry

Draymond Green has spent his entire career around superstars, winning four championships next to Stephen Curry in Golden State and facing LeBron James in four straight Finals, so when he talks about star power, he speaks from experience few players can match.

That perspective is what made his comments before Game 3 of the NBA Finals stand out.

Appearing on Inside the NBA, the Warriors forward was asked about Jalen Brunson and the hold he has on New York, and he reached for the two biggest names of his generation to describe it.

"I've obviously played in six NBA Finals or whatever it is, but I played with Stephen Curry, and I played against LeBron James a lot," Green said. "The amount of Jalen Brunson jerseys I see stacks up to the amount of Stephen Curry and LeBron James jerseys you see."

Green has never been shy about weighing in on the Finals, whether he is breaking down how teams defend Victor Wembanyama the way they once defended Curry or debating whether a small guard can lead a champion.

This comparison stood out even by his standards.

History is the reason.

The list of small guards who have won titles as the best player on their team is tiny, with Isiah Thomas doing it for Detroit in 1989 and 1990 and Curry doing it four times in Golden State.

Brunson, listed at 6-foot-2 just like Curry, is trying to become the next name on it.

Curry was also the last guard his size to carry a team to the Finals, doing it when the Warriors won it all in 2022, and Brunson is the first one since to get back there as the lead option.

He has the Knicks, who went 53-29 this season, up 2-1 on the Spurs despite Monday's 115-111 loss at Madison Square Garden.

Brunson averaged 26.0 points and 6.8 assists during the regular season and has bumped that to 26.9 points per game in the playoffs, including 32 in the Game 3 defeat.

The production has held up against three rounds of playoff defenses built specifically to take the ball out of his hands, and the Garden crowd has answered every big shot.

Curry's season went the other way.

Knee trouble limited him to 43 games, though he still averaged 26.6 points on 39.3 percent shooting from three when he played.

The Warriors finished 37-45 and lost to Phoenix in the play-in, ending a season that never got healthy.

While Golden State figures out how to use Curry's final years, Green is watching another small guard chase a June run his teammate once made look routine.

Two more wins and Brunson joins the club Green knows better than anyone, and the jersey count in New York will only grow from there.