Draymond Green Playfully Trolls Charles Barkley for Picking Rockets vs. Warriors

Forgive, but never forget.
 Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green on May 2, 2025.
Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green on May 2, 2025. / Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images

Forgive, but never forget.

Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green clearly couldn't resist a goodhearted troll when he discovered Inside the NBA's Charles Barkley had emphatically selected the Houston Rockets in Sunday night's playoff Game 7, and took to his Instagram for a bit of fun.

Aafter the contest had concluded—and the Warriors had walked away with a very definitive win—Green shared the clip of Barkley's prediction to his IG story and added the caption, "Love Charles."

In the clip, Barkley says, "I think the Rockets gonna win tonight. Steph [Curry's] gonna be aggressive but it's not gonna be enough. ... I'm guaranteeing the Rockets win tonight."

Watch that below:

Green then escalated things ever so slightly in the following slide, which featured another clip of Barkley claiming the Warriors "blew" the series in Game 6.

Above that video, he wrote, "My OG brother doesn't understand championship pedigree," seemingly a reference to the fact that Barkley never won an NBA title during his 16 seasons in the league. Still, "We love you Chuckster," Green continued, adding in tiny print: "You do have a couple Golds though."

Savage, but also kind of funny.

Barkley also claimed ahead of the game that star Steph Curry is "starting to wear down" and no longer "capable of getting to 50 points" per game this late in the season. It was an interesting thought, considering Curry most recently dropped 50+ points in a game back in April, but, all in all, just another example of the analyst betting against Golden State for this contest.

Even so, the Warriors walked away from Game 7 with a 103–89 victory, and yet another playoff win vs. the Rockets. Dubs guard Buddy Hield dropped a game-leading 33 points, while Steph Curry (22), Jimmy Butler (20), and Green (16) all had solid contributions, too.

So yeah, it's safe to say at this point that Barkley's prediction just did not age well.


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Brigid Kennedy
BRIGID KENNEDY

Brigid Kennedy is a contributor to the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in November 2024, she covered political news, sporting news and culture at TheWeek.com before moving to Livingetc, an interior design magazine. She is a graduate of Syracuse University, dual majoring in television, radio and film (from the Newhouse School of Public Communications) and marketing managment (from the Whitman School of Management). Offline, she enjoys going to the movies, reading and watching the Steelers.