HOW TNT RUINED DRAYMOND AND MIGHT COST THE WARRIORS A TITLE

Teams that allow active players to be network hot-takers should heed the lesson of Draymond Green, whose already ample ego swelled with a TV deal — now, he seems more into his podcast than the Finals

     You don’t know Tara August. And she probably doesn’t grasp the chaos she has wreaked with her reckless brainstorm. But she must be alerted, and so should you: Thanks to August and her management colleagues at Turner Sports, the priority checklist for active pro athletes — especially those with wind-up mouths and an abundance of attention-seizing opinions — has been twisted ass-backwards.

     Creating constant commotion and controversy, to the point of hijacking an entire NBA Finals, comes first now.

     Playing well and winning a championship come second.

     At least if you’re Draymond Green and — God help us — the inevitable wave of see-me/hear-me/hate-me copycats soon to follow his unfortunate career path.

     It was August, a senior vice president at Turner, who hatched the bright idea of turning loose Green as a disruptive media personality BEFORE he retired from basketball. Already one of sport’s most outspoken lightning rods, Green’s bombast has been enabled — actually, cranked full-blast — by the multi-year contract he signed at TNT in January. The deal fast-tracked the grand plan that Green eventually will replace Charles Barkley, who soon turns 60 and says he isn’t long for TV, on the panel of the uber-popular studio show, “Inside The NBA.” It also propelled Green into an unstoppable ego forcefield that has dominated the Finals and, worse, only done harm to the Golden State Warriors as they try to validate their dynasty.

     Six years after he sabotaged his team by grabbing LeBron James by the crown jewels, which led to a title-stopping suspension, Green has played like “s—” in two losses to the Boston Celtics — at least he acknowledged as much, using the word as his 6-year-old son sat beside him. If his antics once were tolerated because of his defense and dirty-work skills, his act has become a counterproductive drain at age 32 in a series when he has as many fouls (15) as points. He constantly is embarrassed by younger and more focused opponents, has turned invisible on offense, seems afraid to shoot a broken jumpshot and isn’t helping much down low as the Celtics dominate the boards. Green is a liability — is it time to give some of his minutes to rookie Jonathan Kuminga? — who is poisoning hopes of a fourth championship in eight years, all of which only points to an uglier truth.

     He hasn’t backed up his yak, the cardinal sin of any athlete who tries to make his sideshow bigger than the ultimate competitive purpose. While he isn’t appearing on TNT during a Finals televised by ABC, his media profile carries a disproportionate weight over all other aspects of the series. He aims at targets during press conferences while obsessed with a podcast — “The Draymond Green Show,” part of the Colin Cowherd network — that includes immediate episodes after games, win or lose. He seems to think the scoreboard is based on media buzz, not points on the hardwood, which explains why he has more podcasts (3) than blocks (2), more turnovers (6) than baskets (5) and more technical fouls (1) than three-pointers (0) while averaging five points, six rebounds and five assists on 26 percent from the field and 50 percent at the free-throw line.

     When it was suggested after the 116-100 loss in Game 3 that his media work has become a hindrance to himself and the team cause, Green grew antagonistic, then defiant. “Y’all gonna get this podcast. Win, lose, draw. Hoisting the trophy, putting my ring on my finger, you name it,” he roared.

     Down 1-2 to the deeper and hungrier Celtics, with Steph Curry limping on a re-injured foot and hostile TD Garden rowdies ready to pummel him worse than they did Wednesday night, I don’t like his chances of another ring. Lucky as he was not to be ejected in Game 1 for his mugging of Jaylen Brown, all Green has done is kill his team with poor performances and non-stop distractions. On a day off in Boston, he took on Celtics great Cedric Maxwell for saying of the Brown episode: “That s— Draymond Green was doing? During the ‘80s, he’d (have) got knocked the f— out.” When Green fired back by questioning Maxwell’s toughness in the day, Maxwell pointed out that Green wasn’t yet born when he retired from the league and said, “Draymond, ask your daddy who I was.”

     How is any of this healthy for Green or the Warriors? In the big picture, he also might be costing himself a potential Basketball Hall of Fame berth, which would seem contingent on a fourth title and avoiding a third Finals defeat. All he has done is open floodgates to criticism, including a raucous Boston reception in which fans alternated chants of “F— you, Draymond!” and “Draymond Sucks!” When he responds with a “soft” game — again, his word — it only invites more salvos from his increasing pool of critics.

     “Looks like Draymond was more prepped for his post game podcast than the actual game,” ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins tweeted.

     Said Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas, speaking on NBA TV after the loss: “The NBA Finals, and when you're playing for a championship, it really is about your mental toughness and your mental focus, and being able to totally 100 percent concentrate on your opponent. Shutting him down, understanding their offensive and defensive schemes. Any time you lose that focus or that concentration and you're talking about Cedric Maxwell, and you're talking about podcasts, and you're talking about the fans, then you have really lost your concentration and your focus.

     “And where does that show up? That shows up in the box score in a game like tonight where you played 34 minutes, you have four rebounds, three assists, and two points. Draymond Green does that in a grade school game, not in the NBA Finals. He has lost focus in terms of concentrating on beating the opponent. He’s not talking about Jaylen Brown. He’s not talking about (Jayson) Tatum, he’s not talking about Marcus Smart. He’s talking about podcasts and he's talking about Cedric Maxwell and the fans.”

     So we’ll await Green’s next sound-bite dump on Thomas.

     Oh, boy.

     After awhile, the 24/7 Dray Barrage loses impact when poor play erodes his credibility. Everyone will just tune him out when he says Kevin Durant misses the Warriors — does he, after Green repeatedly called him “a bitch,” a factor in his departure to Brooklyn? Or when he predicts the Miami Heat will lose in the Eastern Conference finals, perceived in New England as a stated preference to play the Celtics? For now, Green will have to deal with the fallout of a worst-ever playoff performance and another earful Friday night, which he claims doesn’t bother him. “No, they just talking. They did what I expected. Not really my job to react to them,’’ he said, forgetting that he flipped off the fans in Memphis last month and was fined $25,000 by the league. “We’ll be better. I’ll be better.

     “Come out, win Game 4. Go back 2-2.”

     It won’t be that simple. Nor will his vow to be more active offensively. The Draymond of the mid-2010s has shrunk into something unrecognizable. “I have to be more aggressive on both sides of the ball," Green said Thursday. “We are a much better team when I'm aggressive offensively, so I have to be that for this team. I've always prided myself on giving the team what it needs in order to win. I always want to do what I can for my team. That’s my M.O.”

     How about shutting up? That would help immensely.

     All of which led to hypocrisy. Green can fire expletives at opponents and officials — and drop another with his son beside him — but the Warriors continued to defend him by … ripping Boston fans for their foul language? “Classy. Very classy,” said coach Steve Kerr, who added that he continues to believe in Green and expects him to bounce back.

     Said Klay Thompson: “Dropping F-bombs with children in the crowd. Really classy. Good job, Boston.”

     It begs the question of why Kerr and general manager Bob Myers, who rarely get anything wrong, didn’t anticipate the obvious issues when they allowed Green to expand his media empire. Kerr, who once won titles in Chicago as Dennis Rodman’s teammate, tends to laugh about it. “I don’t listen to Draymond’s podcast. I listen to him every day, so I get enough of Draymond,” he joked during the regular season. Myers has said he just wants his moody star to be happy.

     Now, no one’s happy. That includes Green’s wife, Hazel Renee, who trashed Boston fans for “disgusting” behavior on a late-night Instagram post: “In NO WAY, shape or from should fans be allowed to chant obscenities at players. Are they not human?” Wait, it’s OK for her husband to cuss up a storm but not the fans? Green’s mother, Mary Babers-Green, piped in on a Bay Area sports station, reminding Barkley — a Warriors hater — that he doesn’t have a championship ring while her son has three. And Kendrick Perkins? “I never even knew who he was until recently. I could care less,” she said. “If that’s how he treats his job, ‘As long as I’m making this money.’ Then make the money, brother.”

     The same could be said, of course, about Draymond Green and his media ventures. Tara August and the TNT folks should be concerned. If Green’s playing career and “Q” approval rating keep trending downward, it won’t help his broadcasting career. The other networks should be taking notes. ESPN is in such a rush to find its own Draymond, the blustery Patrick Beverley has been shoved into our ear canals — while still on the roster of the Minnesota Timberwolves. It’s only the beginning of the mad search for spicy active athletes who can double as hot-takers.

     We’ve already seen a similar scramble for NFL quarterbacks, albeit on a more lucrative and less voluble level. It’s unlikely Tom Brady will offer more than cursory opinions when his $375-million broadcasting career begins, but pressured to one-up ESPN as it poached Troy Aikman (and play-by-play partner Joe Buck), Fox invested preposterous money on Brady’s image and seven-ring legacy. Not that every ex-QB is good in the booth. Drew Brees flopped at NBC, and don’t be surprised if Brady is met by meh reviews.

     At least Green will bring something to the microphone. But the TNT deal could have waited until he retired. It might be remembered as the Kerr/Myers oversight that cost Golden State a dynasty claim. You had to laugh when Beverley, as the copycat Draymond, knocked Green the other night, pointing out his disappearance as a scoring threat. Said the 33-year-old journeyman: “I mean, Draymond Green underneath the free throw line, with the ball in the post. They went away from that, and you see Draymond get most of his threes at the top of the key. If I’m the Boston Celtics, I’m inviting that.”

    No podcast retort can change the truth: The moonlighting media guy is a terrible basketball player right now.

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     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.