Skip to content

Draymond responds to Rapinoe's criticism for gender pay gap comments

Abbie Parr / Getty Images Sport / Getty

Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green clarified the remarks he made in late March regarding the pay gap between men's and women's sports after U.S. women's soccer star Megan Rapinoe criticized him for the comments Wednesday.

"At the end of the day, what Megan wants and what I want is the same thing," Green told reporters Thursday, according to ESPN's Nick Friedell. "And if she believes that doing something a certain way gets her to the end goal, I'm all for that. And if I believe doing something a certain way gets to the end goal, I'm all for that. So if we can both do something to move the needle to get to the end goal, great.

"I have no complaints with whatever it is that she wants to do, or any woman athlete. Or anyone that's trying to help drive their cause and what they want to be done. It doesn't really matter to me how you get there. What does matter to me is that we get there."

Green wrote in a series of tweets on March 27 that complaints about the wage disparity in sports are falling on "deaf ears." The 31-year-old argued that there needs to be more focus on securing "proper funding and storytelling" to erase the divide.

Rapinoe, a longtime vocal proponent for equal pay, rebuked Green for the comments at a media event for the U.S. Olympic team Wednesday.

"It's really unfortunate that in the position he's in, having all the resources that he has, and the ability to have a much more educated opinion that he just hasn't," the 35-year-old said. "Really frustrating. Obviously, he just kind of showed his whole ass in not understanding what we talk about the whole time."

Green said Thursday his tweets didn't fully communicate the points he was trying to make, adding that he didn't want to thoroughly explain his stance through Twitter.

"A lot of what I said in the tweet - you can't really make out my full position from my tweets," he said. "Which was intentional because I don't want you to make out my full position from a tweet.

"What I want to do is I want to raise awareness with my tweets. I want to have these conversations to help get over here to the side of good, to the side that we're all trying to get to, to the side that we want to see these women get."

Daily Newsletter

Get the latest trending sports news daily in your inbox