Heart, hustle and muscle, always punching the clock.
Draymond Green, the former Michigan State Spartan star under Hall of Fame coach Tom Izzo, from Saginaw, is the recipient of the 2024-25 NBA Hustle Award, the league announced Friday.
The four-time champion Golden State Warriors forward-center also was a finalist for the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award, won by the Cleveland Cavaliers Evan Mobley and also finishing behind Dyson Daniels from the Atlanta Hawks on Thursday. Green earned the honor in 2016-17. This is the first Hustle Award for the 13-year NBA veteran.
The NBA Hustle Award, given out for the past nine seasons, since 2016-17, “honors a player who makes the effort plays that do not often appear in the traditional box score but help determine team success,” the league stated. The award is not voted on in the traditional sense. Instead, it is compiled of statistics that factor into the award including deflections, loose balls recovered, charges drawn, screen assists, contested shots and box-outs.
Green ranked in the top 40 in the league in all nine “hustle categories,” including sixth in charges drawn.
Finishing behind Green were Oklahoma City Thunder guard Cason Wallace, Philadelphia 76ers forward Guerschon Yabusele, Oklahoma City Thunder guard Luguentz Dort and Daniels.
Embed from Getty ImagesGreen is the second player to have both won a Defensive Player of the Year award and the Hustle Award in his career, joining three-time hustle winner Marcus Smart. Thunder guard Alex Caruso won the award last year when he was with the Chicago Bulls, while the other prior winners are Smart, Thaddeus Young (2021), Montrezl Harrell (2020), Amir Johnson (2018) and Patrick Beverley (2017).
Green, 35-years-of-age, averaged 9.1 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 5.6 assists in 68 regular-season games played for the Warriors this season. The Warriors, seeded seventh in the Western Conference, are tied 1-1 with the second-seeded Houston Rockets in their first-round NBA playoff series.
He is a four-time All-Star who has earned first- or second-team all-defensive honors eight times in his career.
At Michigan State, Green was a consensus first team All-American in 2012, after he averaged 16.2 points and 10.6 rebounds as a senior in route to Big Ten Player of the Year honors. He helped the Spartans win regular-season Big Ten titles in 2010 and 2012, as well as a Big Ten tournament title in 2012.
He ended his MSU career as one of three Spartans in history to finish with more than 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds.
Green was selected in the second round, No. 35 overall, in the 2012 NBA Draft.
