The Cost

An unflinching memoir about antiheroes, toughness, and winning at all costs from the unforgettable NBA champion Draymond Green, with insights into some of the most controversial moments of his career.

Suspended, indefinitely. The day after he swung at Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nurkic, Draymond Green was handed one of the harshest sentence an NBA player can be given. This wasn’t, after all, an isolated incident. Weeks before, he’d put Rudy Gobert in a headlock. The previous year, he was suspended for punching his own teammate at training camp. But Green’s reputation for violence is equaled, sometimes eclipsed, by his brilliance on the court. The “heart and soul” of one of the most dazzling dynasties in modern sports history, and the vanguard of the “small ball” era of basketball, Green is as revered as a “basketball revolutionary” (Sports Illustrated) as he is vilified for being the “dirtiest player in NBA history” (Skip Bayless).

Reflecting on this mixed legacy, Green interrogates these dueling forces within himself: the unselfish, essential teammate and leader, and the loose cannon. In meditative, deeply candid chapters, Green untangles the internal and external forces that have made him so combative and volatile in his sport: from his early days in Saginaw, Michigan, apprenticing under the great Tom Izzo at Michigan State, to his role within the Golden State Warriors dynasty. Green writes about the “win by any means necessary” mentality that has allowed him—an undersized forward surrounded by bigger, faster, stronger athletes—to stick in the league and eventually become one of the most decorated players in NBA history, even as it’s a source of aggression that he, increasingly, can no longer control.

The Cost offers a rare glimpse into the mind of a storied athlete as he prepare for his final act, questioning what it might take to transcend the narratives other people have already written, and how—if possible—to come to terms with his own demons.