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The Golden State Warriors suspended Draymond Green for Tuesday’s game against the Atlanta Hawks without pay for conduct detrimental to the team following an altercation on Monday night with teammate Kevin Durant. General manager Bob Myers declined to offer specifics why the All-Star forward’s behavior was considered worthy of a suspension. Myers and Warriors coach Steve Kerr collaborated on the decision.
“We just felt like this rose to the level of acting the way we did,” Myers said, noting of Green: “He was professional. He loves to play basketball, which is all you can ask of him.”
The Warriors made the announcement hours before Tuesday night’s game against the Hawks, which Golden State won 110-103, with Durant scoring a team-high 29 points. “I’m going to keep [the Green suspension] in house, that’s what we do here,” Durant said after the game. “I’m not trying to give nobody no headlines. What happened, happened. We’re trying to move on, we’re just trying to play basketball.”
In the closing seconds of regulation during Monday’s 121-116 overtime loss to the Clippers, Green secured a rebound and, with Durant calling for the ball, instead dribbled the length of the court into traffic and lost control as the Warriors failed to get a shot off. Durant was shown on camera visibly upset immediately afterward.
Then, back on the bench waiting for the extra period to begin, the two traded words and gestured with Klay Thompson seated between them and Andre Iguodala, DeMarcus Cousins and others trying to calm the situation. The tension is understood to have continued in the locker room after the game.
The Warriors have won three of the last four NBA finals, but Myers said that doesn’t make the team perfect. “It’s hard to win a championship. You can’t allow anything else in your locker room, in the narrative. This team has done a good job of that,” Myers said. “I know it may appear as if it’s looked easy over the last however many years. It’s not. If you’re in our locker room, if you’re in our organization, it’s hard.
Myers and Kerr have long supported Green’s fiery nature that leads to technical fouls. Myers even sat with Green next door to Oracle Arena at the Oakland Coliseum when Green was suspended for a crucial Game 5 loss to LeBron James and the Cavaliers in the 2016 NBA finals. The Warriors wound up losing in seven. Green also apologized after yelling at Kerr during halftime of a game at Oklahoma City in February 2016.
“My feeling on Draymond and his impact on our team doesn’t change. These things happen sometimes over the course of an NBA season,” Kerr said. “We deal with it again, internally so any conversations that are happening or have happened it’s our business.”
This wasn’t the first verbal altercation between Durant, the two-time reigning NBA Finals MVP, and Green. In another overtime loss, 109-106 at Sacramento in February 2017, they shouted at each other and argued near the bench.
Kerr said he spoke to Green, who was part of the recruiting group that worked to sway Durant to the Bay Area from Oklahoma City before the 2016-17 season. “They’ve won championships together, they’ve been teammates, now this is the third season, they were teammates on the Olympic team,” Kerr said. “Draw your own conclusions.”
Durant will become a free agent this summer, and there has been speculation he may leave the Warriors. Kerr said the situation has not affected the team. “Not the slightest bit,” he said. “Nobody ever talks about Kevin’s free agency. It doesn’t bother any of us.
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