Draymond Green opens up about therapy to DeMar DeRozan in a new mental health YouTube series: ‘I’ve talked myself out of it a million times’

Draymond Green has spent years talking himself out of going to therapy.

The Golden State Warriors star was open about his skepticism in the opening episode of “Dinners with DeMar,” a video series hosted by Chicago Bulls forward DeMar DeRozan spotlighting mental health conversations with fellow NBA players.

In the first episode, released Tuesday, Green expressed eagerness to improve emotionally and mentally but said he struggles to accept therapy as a viable option.

“The NBA, they have a clinical psychologist come in and speak to the team and in those meetings, every time the guy comes I say, ‘Yo, can I get your card? Imma gonna reach out to you,’” Green said. “There’s been times where I’m like, ‘Oh, man, I’m gonna go to therapy, I’m ready to go, it’s the time now.’ And every time I talk myself out of it. … I’ve talked myself out of it a million times.”

Thought Draymond Green offered an interesting perspective on his own struggles with accepting therapy as an option for himself in the first episode of DeMar DeRozan’s new YouTube series.

“I’ve talked myself out of it a million times.” pic.twitter.com/MKSqpwqRyL

— Julia Poe (@byjuliapoe) February 21, 2024

This is a familiar feeling for DeRozan, who was equally wary about starting therapy in 2018.

The depth of his trauma — getting jumped for wearing the wrong colors as a 12-year-old, watching his father’s last moments through a laptop screen during the COVID-19 pandemic — often made him question how well a therapist could relate to or advise him.

“I used to find every excuse not to go,” DeRozan said. “I just got to a point to where, like, let me just treat this like it’s a film session and really indulge in it and see what I can find. Even if it’s one thing I can find, that’s how I really looked at it. Let me treat it like a film session. Even though I know what happened in the game. Let me see something I can see that could help me that next possession.”

Green has been a centerpiece for mental health conversations after he was assigned league-mandated therapy during a 12-game suspension for punching Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nurkić in a Dec. 12 game.

The episode of DeRozan’s series was recorded in July, well before Green’s suspension. But even then, Green expressed an understanding that his sometimes-volatile emotions can be a hazard — and a desire to improve himself.

“Earlier this year, I had to tell myself, ‘Yo, it’s time to dive back into yourself, to improve yourself,’ ” Green said. “You have not improved as a person at all. Like, all right, you got better at basketball, you got better at doing the podcast, but you have not improved yourself as a person at all.”

DeRozan understands the outside perception of Green, whom he described at the start of the episode as “one of the most misunderstood people in our league.”

But despite the rocky context of the last year, DeRozan said the past season hasn’t changed the way he viewed or valued Green’s conversation for the series.

“It’s just him,” DeRozan said. “Draymond, since he’s been in the league, has been Draymond. I think we talked about it in the episode — the passion, the fire that he brings, you take that away from him, he don’t make it to the NBA, he don’t become an All-Star, champion, defensive player. Take away his fire, his passion, he wouldn’t be who he is. We all have something in us where we just got to learn how to tame it and understand that and I think that’s just where he’s at.”

DeRozan launched the series with an event at his alma mater, USC, on Tuesday evening. With the series, DeRozan hopes to break down the stigma surrounding conversations of mental health and therapy.

For his Bulls teammates and coaches, those conversations already have become a normal part of working around DeRozan.

“I love talking to DeMar about it because I think so much of not only just NBA players or basketball players but professionals, so much of your success is driven by how hard you work to get yourself to a good place mentally,” coach Billy Donovan said. “I really admire and respect DeMar from the personal work that he’s put in but also the vulnerability that he’s willing to share. It’s powerful in a lot of different levels.”

The full video is available on DeRozan’s YouTube channel. The first season of the “Dinners with DeMar” series will include two additional episodes featuring Damian Lillard and Dwyane Wade.