He’s not remotely close to the end of his athletic career, but Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors is making quite an impression in broadcasting. It’s giving him thoughts of making that his full-time job after his NBA career concludes. And he doesn’t intend to settle for just being good. He wants to be Tony Romo good.

The current NBA season didn’t go as planned

At 30 years old, eight-year NBA veteran Draymond Green has lots of basketball left to play. And though this season was a disaster for the team because of injuries, the Golden State Warriors are expected to be right back in the playoff hunt once the next NBA season commences.

In fact, with Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson back in the mix and help coming in the form of the league’s No. 2 draft pick, Green could even soon be in position to win a fourth NBA championship.

Golden State’s most recent NBA season ended with a 15-50 record, the worst in the league. Green had injuries of his own and appeared in just 43 games. The 6-foot-6 forward averaged just 8.0 points – nearly his career low as a starter – and 6.2 rebounds.

When the pandemic-interrupted season resumed minus the Warriors and other also-runs, Green pulled up a chair on the set at TNT as a part-time analyst on the network’s basketball broadcasts. He also did some work for CNN, and fans and critics reacted positively to his work.

Oddly, Draymond Green was emulating Charles Barkley

Some of Draymond Green’s experience on TNT proved memorable for the wrong reason. The NBA docked the former Michigan State player $50,000 in early August over his comments about 23-year-old Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker.

Green had praised Booker and the Suns for a quick start in the NBA bubble at Disney World but said it would be best for Booker to leave Phoenix. “It’s not good for him. It’s not good for his career,” Green said. “… I need my man to go somewhere where he can play great basketball all the time and win, because he’s that type of player.”

The fine was the maximum allowable without the league opening itself up to a grievance process, according to ESPN.

Of course, the studio role at TNT was a bit of irony for Draymond Green, since that’s usually the domain of Hall of Fame player Charles Barkley — probably the best-known commentator in the sport these days. Green and Barkley seem to have forged a truce, but they had engaged in verbal jousting for more than a year.

“I think when we’re out there, there’s usually several differences of opinion, and that’s fine,” Green recently told the New York Times. “Our opinions don’t always have to align. He’s an amazing person and he’s an amazing talent when it comes to TV. I respect him.”

Draymond Green thinks he can be like Tony Romo

As much as he enjoyed being a TNT talking head before and after games, Draymond Green recently said that he would rather be a color commentator at courtside for games.

Green thinks his strength as a broadcaster would be breaking down what’s happening on the court in real-time. The natural role model for that in sports broadcasting would be Tony Romo, who went from the Dallas Cowboys to stardom and a $180 million contract extension on CBS.

“I love to try to educate through the TV position,” Green told the paper. “The offense is lined up and the defense is lined up and he’s telling us exactly what the offense is about to do because of what he sees.

“Similar to Tony Romo, I want to give the world insight on what is actually going on out there on the court, as opposed to people thinking they know what’s going on.”