Kevin Durant and Draymond green blamed Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr and team president / general manager Bob Myers for mishandling the consequences of the player argument that ultimately contributed to Durant leaving the team after the 2018-19 season .
In an interview published Wednesday in Bleacher Report, Durant and Green said they believed Kerr and Myers were to blame for the way they handled the emotional swings of on-court players who came to the locker room after overtime in the loss. against the LA Clippers at the Staples Center on November 12, 2018.
During the first episode of his new series ‘Chips’, Green asked Durant how much that argument influenced his decision to leave the Warriors.
“It wasn’t the argument,” Durant told Green. “It was the way everyone Steve Kerr acted like it didn’t happen. Bob Myers tried to discipline you. [Green] and he thought that would put a mask on everything. “
Green, who was ultimately suspended by the Warriors for the next game for his role in the discussion, said he spoke with Warriors management after flying back to the Bay Area after the game against the Clippers and then back to the next morning. He said he had a message for Myers and Warriors, when the group asked him to apologize to Durant.
“They’re about to screw this up,” Green said. “I said, ‘The only people who can fix this are me and K [Durant]. And there is nothing you can do, and you are going to screw this up. ‘ And in my opinion, they screwed up. “Durant replied,” I think so too.
While Durant and Green seemed to get over the incident in the next two weeks, the awkward nature of the public incident, combined with the fact that players and coaches were repeatedly asked about it in almost every city they traveled, loomed over the organization for the rest of the season.
It’s not the first time Green has addressed the team’s reaction to his argument with Durant. In 2019, he and Myers discussed the incident, the aftermath, and their relationship during a joint interview with ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on The Woj Pod.
Durant, who tore his Achilles tendon during Game 5 of the 2019 NBA Finals against the Toronto Raptors, decided to sign with the Brooklyn Nets after the season ended. The Warriors have missed the playoffs for two years in a row since Durant left.
Like Green did in previous interviews, Durant noted that he saw parallels between the Warriors ‘situation and the Chicago Bulls’ breakup while watching ‘The Last Dance’.
“I remember seeing ‘The Last Dance,’ and when Scottie [Pippen] He didn’t go into the game, the whole team in the locker room said, ‘Scottie, it was screwed that you did that. We needed it. We just had to throw all that shit on the table and say, “Yo Dray, K, it was screwed that we even had to go through that.
“Let’s wipe our hands on it and get the job done … I didn’t think we’d do that. We just tried to stick around with it. I just didn’t like the vibe in between all of that, it sucked on me.”