[From ESPN]

Reporting by Ramona Shelburne, Tim MacMahon and Michael C. Wright

SO MUCH HAS been said in the war of words between Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green and the Memphis Grizzlies organization that it's hard to believe just how close he came to signing there as a free agent in the summer of 2023.

"Very," a source close to Green told ESPN, when asked how serious Green was about leaving the franchise he'd won four titles with to join the young upstarts he'd feuded with so publicly during a heated six-game playoff series a year earlier.

Green had even called Warriors coach Steve Kerr and teammates Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson to warn them that he was close to joining the Grizzlies via a lucrative sign-and-trade deal, sources told ESPN, before Warriors owner Joe Lacob and new general manager Mike Dunleavy swooped in with a four-year, $100 million extension to keep him in the Bay.

Read more of ESPN's story HERE