Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green and head coach Steve Kerr got into a heated incident on the bench during their game against the Orlando Magic on Monday night, leading the player to storm off into the locker room.
Green and Kerr were seen having an animated back-and-forth during a third-quarter timeout. Green then got up and removed himself from the situation, going back to the locker room to cool off. Kerr said even once Green returned to the bench for the rest of the game, he wasn’t going to play.
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“We got into it, obviously, and I took the timeout just because I thought we lost our focus there a little bit,” Kerr said. “We had it out a little bit, and he made his decision to go back to the locker room to cool off and that’s all I’m going to say about it. Everything is private. I’ve got nothing further to add.”
Green had nine points and seven rebounds in the Warriors’ 120-97 win.
“Tempers spilled over, and I just thought it was best that I get out of there,” Green said. “I don’t think there was a situation where it was going to get better, so it was just best to remove myself. That’s it.”
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Green said he was available to play, but it wasn’t his decision. The Warriors improved to 15-15, but the record wasn’t exactly what the team had hoped for. Green said, “That’s probably why tempers are flaring.”
“Basketball, it’s what we do,” he said of what caused the frustration. “We play basketball, it’s an emotional game. People lose their emotions sometimes, it happens.”
Kerr said he didn’t think the issue would linger.
“The group’s ready to go, you could see in the game tonight,” he explained. “We need Draymond. He’s a champion. We’ve been together for a long time. All we can do is the rest of the group keep pushing, keep getting better. I thought this was one of our better games. I thought the first half was brilliant — we just didn’t make shots. I thought Draymond played great.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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