The relationship between Draymond Green and Kevin Durant was a hot topic for some time. It reached the public eyes during a game against the Clippers in October 2018 after the two had a heated exchange in the final minutes of regulation. It appears that the tension between Durant and Green was brewing for some, as the latter revealed on All The Smoke podcast with former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson.
Here is a video of the incident from the game against the Clippers. It got heated to the point that DeMarcus Cousins had to step in to calm Green down. Following the game, the Warriors suspended the 30-year-old forward but specific details were not revealed then.
Talking with Barnes and Jackson, Green revealed not only what happened between him and Durant during the Clippers game but also shared the lead-up to the incident as well as how the team chose to handle the situation. According to him, things were not good right from the start of the season.
He even went to the Warriors general manager Bob Myers and head coach Steve Kerr and told them he is having trouble with Durant. However, no action was taken by neither of them. The team decided not to interfere. So Green just ‘patched it up’ and moved on.
Heres is what happened during the Clippers game, according to Green, via Drew Shiller of NBC Sports:
“He comes to the bench and he slaps the bench like, ‘Yo! Pass me the f–king ball.’ I’m like, ‘Get the f–k outta here. F–king run then.’ And he’s like, ‘You heard what the f–k I said’ and slaps the chair: ‘Pass me the f–king ball.’ I’m like, ‘Yo, you better calm the f–k down. I don’t know who the f–k you think you’re talking to.’
“Remember, I got the pulse of this team. I got the pulse of the organization. I already know you one foot in and one foot out. By the way, I’m the closest person here to you. When you have a problem — when s–t going on in your life — the person you talk to here is me. We got that relationship … So that’s where I’m like, ‘Yo, who the f–k you think you’re talking to? I’ve been an All-Star before you got here. I’ve been doing this. Don’t talk to me like I’m one of these little dudes that don’t know how to hoop. I’m a grown a– man.’
“And then he started cussing back and I’m cussing back. And then DeMarcus pulled me out of the huddle like, ‘Yo, calm down. I feel where you’re coming from but relax. It’s too much.'”
The next day Green was called to the meeting the Myers and Kerr and was asked to apologize Durant. He refused to do that, saying that he meant what he said to KD during the game. The three-time champion did not change his mind the next and was eventually suspended by the team. From then on the things got only worse, according to Green.
Green rejected the notion that he was the reason why Durant left the Warriors last summer, saying that if that was indeed the case, KD could have simply asked Golden State management to trade Draymond and it would have happened simply because of Durant’s importance to the team.
