LeBron James and Cavs elaborate on relationship with Draymond Green after a social-media war that captivated the NBA world

The social-media war only fed into the image that James and Green are rivals, even if they have a seemingly friendly off-court relationship. After all, it was a confrontation between the two players that led to Green’s Game 5 suspension in the 2016 Finals, starting some trash talk and taking the two teams’ rivalry to a new level.

However, as James, Richard Jefferson, and Channing Frye explained on the “Road Trippin'” podcast, the back-and-forth really is not indicative of how the parties feel about one another.

“The other guy is such a great guy,” Frye said on the podcast, purposely leaving Green’s name out of it. “It’s just gentleman banter back and forth, it’s all good.”

“Oh yeah, for sure,” James said in agreement. “It’s all good.”

Fyre also said that there is a media narrative that the two teams dislike each other that isn’t accurate.

“In all actuality, Draymond is not a bad guy. He talks some s—. We talk some s—. It’s fine! … Do you think if really we hated each other, he would mention anything to us? … Draymond likes us. He’s a nice guy!”

Jefferson added, “I was on the team when they drafted Draymond. I was on the team when they drafted Klay. I was on the team when this thing kinda got started. Draymond’s a good dude. Can he be annoying as f—? Yes. He knows that, that’s part of his charm, that’s part of what he tries to do. That’s part of trash-talking is to try and be annoying.”

James, reflecting on the social-media war, said that he had been planning to shave his head and that he takes pleasure in Green thinking about him on a day the Warriors were celebrating.

“But I just feel like that it’s great that on the day you’re celebrating your championship, my likeness and my name is in your head,” James said. “I love that.”

While players took sides in the social-media war — players like James Harden and Russell Westbrook liked James’ Instagram response — Frye expressed regret that he couldn’t have jumped in.

“If I would have scored 8-12 points total, I’d be talking the most s—,” said Frye, who scored just two points total in the Finals.

“I would have had the internet killing him all over the place. I was like, I wish he would have put me in. Oh, [Tyronn Lue], put me in for this reason alone. I’m ready, dawg. Listen. But I can’t say s—. I can’t say nothing. This f—ing sucks.”

“Road Trippin,'” it should be noted, is hosted by Uninterrupted, which James works with and also hosts Green’s podcast, “Dray Day.”

Clearly, both sides have some animosity toward each other, particularly because of the competition between the two teams. However, it also seems to be good-natured, and it doesn’t seem as though the trash-talking is going to die down any time soon.