How Draymond Green Went From Enemy to Beloved Among Spurs Fans

To say Draymond Green has made some on-court enemies over the years would be an understatement. From repeated altercations to his constant groin-kicking antics, he rubbed many NBA fans the wrong way, myself included.

The San Antonio Spurs weren't safe from his wild flailing and disrespectful behavior over the years either. I'll let these next two clips say all you need to know about the kind of stuff we'd see from him on a regular basis.

When there's a nearly 11-minute video on YouTube strictly highlighting your dirty plays with over 1.5 million views, you know it's a real problem.

Fortunately for everyone's sake, the four-time NBA All-Star started to mature over the years. While he still has his moments, they're much less frequent and he's settled down tremendously off the court.

Draymond Green Defends Coach Popovich After Olympic Gold

The first way Green started endearing himself to San Antonio was how he helped Coach Popovich win gold last August. Afterward, he couldn't help but rub it in the faces of some guys who confusingly seemed to be rooting for the U.S. to fail with Pop at the helm. The list included names like Kendrick Perkins, Skip Bayless, and The Athletic's Joe Vardon.

He and Kevin Durant also went on Instagram Live after the gold medal game to defend Coach Pop specifically (warning: explicit language).

Green Says Keldon Johnson Will Be an All-Star

Keldon Johnson was also a member of Team USA in last year's Olympics and seemed to quickly become the team's goofy younger brother. During that experience, he clearly made a fan out of Green, who recently complimented the 22-year-old during Golden State's last visit to San Antonio.

Saying Johnson will be an All-Star soon is high praise coming from someone who will likely be a Hall of Famer when all is said and done. We happen to agree that Keldon has a legitimate shot at being one someday ourselves.

Draymond Endorses Dejounte to Replace Him in Cleveland

Green's latest endorsement of a Spur also went noticed by many Spurs fans. After Dejounte Murray was snubbed from this season's NBA All-Star team, Green surprised many with his on-air declaration.

"I won't be able to play in the All-Star Game, so may have a chance to get rewarded by Commissioner Silver. I hope that comes to fruition for him," he said on TNT. Studio host Ernie Johnson agreed Murray should have been selected as a reserve, citing his statistics as one reason.

Fans of the Silver and Black everywhere took notice of Green's recent gestures.

"Draymond always been a real one," said @BoasMohajer. "Has had huge respect for the Spurs over the years and been vocally praising guys like Keldon and Dejounte."

"I used to really dislike the 2017 Warriors," said @GoSpursG0. "But I’m doing a complete 180 on Draymond, KD. Not to mention Kerr, Steph and Klay are class acts. The league in general is in good hands."

"Draymond has definitely matured over the years," said @kful_. Even Texas State Representative Diego Bernal suggested someone in San Antonio create a Draymond Green mural in response.

After the Spurs' blowout win over the Houston Rockets on Friday, Murray shared his appreciation for Draymond.

It's been nice to see the transformation of Green over the years, and he's undoubtedly earned a lot of respect from the Alamo City for the love he's shown to their beloved guys.