Draymond Green has already had it with Yaxel Lendeborg’s antics.
While Yaxel is seemingly a good dude, he’s known as a troll and he did that all season with Michigan en route to a national title and then called Michigan State “losers” after he was asked if he’d wear Spartan swag if the veterans wants to partake in a little friendly rookie hazing.
Lendeborg has rubbed some people the wrong way this year and it’s probably because he sees his trolling as harmless banter, which it usually is, but lying about his new veteran teammate wasn’t a great start to his Golden State Warriors career.
During a recent intro press conference, Lendeborg was asked if any of the players had reached out to him yet and he said that Steph Curry added him to the team group chat immediately.
He also said that he had reached out to Draymond but had yet to receive a response.
As expected, Draymond had receipts and he made sure to put the rookie from Michigan on blast, sharing the text exchange between the two which clearly proved that Lendeborg was lying.
Draymond made sure to address this on his podcast, calling Lendeborg out and warning him that if he keeps lying or making his teammates look bad for no reason, he could bring some rookie hazing back. He also said that Lendeborg being a liar isn’t surprising because it’s “the Michigan way”.
Draymond is going off on Yaxel after lying in his interview.
— Michigan State Content (@msucontent) June 30, 2026
“We’re not very much a team of rookie hazing. But, we can pick that back up. I’ve been apart of some popcorn (in car) and some tires going missing. We can bring those back Yaxel if you want to be lying”
“It’s the…
People can hate on Draymond all they want, but he’s correct in this situation. Lendeborg clearly lied because Draymond texted right back even though he was in Europe in a completely different time zone and made sure to welcome him to the team. The exchange was pleasant, but I’m going to assume Draymond will have some words with him in person.
Draymond Green is putting the Michigan rookie in his place
There’s no doubt about it, Lendeborg is an insanely talented basketball player and the Warriors were fortunate enough to pick him in the lottery, but he has to remember that this isn’t college. Just because you’re good at basketball doesn’t mean your teammates are going to put up with you trolling them and lying on their name.
Draymond is trying to set the tone early so Lendeborg knows what the consequences are.
Obviously everyone’s mind goes to the worst things when you hear the term “hazing” but this is more so a friendly hazing which involved popcorn in a car or making a player drive 100 miles to a random Best Buy and back, like Draymond alluded to. He said that the Warriors stopped doing that to rookie, but he can bring it back if Lendeborg wants to act childish.
Imagine the “rookie hazing” Lendeborg would be subject to if LeBron James joins the Warriors and the rookie tries trolling him.
Like Draymond warned: tread lightly, Yaxel.
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