Warriors forward Draymond Green got into a heated exchange with his head coach Steve Kerr in the third quarter during Monday night's win over the Orlando Magic before leaving the court and heading to the locker room to calm down.
“Obviously we got carried away with it and I called a timeout just because I thought we lost our focus a little bit,” Kerr said. “We talked a little bit and he decided to go back to the locker room to cool down, and that's all I have to say about it. It's all confidential. I have nothing more to add.”
The incident comes days after Green was ejected in Saturday's game against Phoenix due to back-to-back technical errors.
“The mood got out there and I just thought I better get out of there,” Green said after Monday’s game. “I don't think there was a situation where the situation could have improved, so it would have been better to retire. That's all.”
Green said he would have been happy to return to the game after the break in the locker room, but Kerr decided not to send him back onto the court.
“I thought I owed it to my teammates to be there. I'm not going to give up on my teammates,” he said.
Golden State's 15-15 record is hardly what this group expected at this point in the season, and Green noted that “that's probably why tempers are flaring.”
“Basketball is what we do,” he said of the disappointment. “We play basketball, it's an emotional game. People get emotional sometimes, that happens… I just thought it would be better for me.” [to go to the locker room]”
Stephen Curry said he thought Kerr and Green “just had a good talk” before the forward left for the locker room. Curry added: “They should be talking about this, not me… I'm pretty sure we know how to be professionals.”
Warriors guard Brandin Podziemski said Green “was a great teammate off the bench” upon his return.
Asked if he thought the problem would continue, Kerr said, “No.”
“The group is ready to go and you can see that in today's game,” Kerr said. “We need Draymond. He's a champion. We've been together a long time. All we can do is the rest of the group keep pushing, keep getting better. I think it was one of our best games. I thought the first half was brilliant – we just weren't making shots. I thought Draymond played great.”
Green has been with the Warriors his entire career, ever since the team drafted him in 2012. Kerr has been their head coach since 2014 and they have won four games. NBA championships together.
“We’ve been doing this for a long time,” Green said. “Sometimes you're with people for a long time and there's a certain level of comfort and stuff happens. We move forward.”
