Former NBA player Tony Allen took to Twitter Tuesday to dispute Draymond Green’s claim that he’s the “best defender to ever play this game.”
“BIG [cap]!!! Who stamped you? Who you clamp!?,” Allen wrote. “In the words of Jay Z! ‘We don’t believe u, u need more people!’” The three-time NBA All-Defensive First Team selectee even tagged Green in his rebuttal to ensure that his tweet is in his mentions.
It wasn’t long before Green responded to Allen’s tweet.
Draymond’s tweet seems to be in regards to a tactic where the Warriors would allow Allen to shoot, knowing that his jumper wasn’t his strongest asset. They used it in 2015, when the Warriors beat Allen’s Grizzlies to adavnce to the Western Conference Finals en route to a championship. One user provided a screenshot showing how intentionally wide-open they would leave him.
Allen then fired back with a tweet clowning Green for the Warriors’ current rough season.
In the 2015 Western Conference semis series where the Warriors won in six games, Allen shot 44.7 percent from the field and 0-3 from three-point range. It’s a bizarre comeback for Draymond because teams tend to use the same strategy on him since he’s a career 31.6 percent shooter from beyond the arc.
Green made the original claim in the latest episode of the Dubs Talk podcast. “One hundred percent. That’s my opinion,” he said.
Draymond’s assertion comes with some notable accomplishments of his own. He’s also been selected to three All-Defensive First Teams, and was awarded Defensive Player of the Year in 2017.
Allen, however, has the distinct honor of being anointed as the best defender the late Kobe Bryant ever faced in his career by the man himself.
Bryant publicly reiterated those sentiments during an appearance on Inside the NBA that same year, saying, “the player [he] always had the most trouble with individually was Tony Allen. Always.”
Green, on the other hand, can boast being, as former teammate Andre Igoudala once called him, the Carmelo Anthony of defense. “When people ask me who is one of the toughest players to defend, and I say Melo, they’re always like ‘Really?,’” Igoudala said in The Athletic. “Maaaan, Melo, he was a fast fat dude with hops. And can shoot. When he hit you with that first step, it was so quick, and then he’s strong. People need to stop disrespecting Melo. And Draymond is the Melo of defense.”
If awards are the definitive benchmark for these “best of” conversations, then Dikembe Mutombo and Ben Wallace stand to be considered since they are the only two players to win the Defensive Player of the Year four times. Meanwhile, Tim Duncan holds a sizable lead in the All-Defensive Team honors with 15 selections.
