The amount of the times that Draymond Green has lost his calm during NBA matches and produced moments of sheer embarrassment for his club are more than you can count on both hands. After 10 years of working side by side, his coach Steve Kerr admitted that their relationship has had many ups and downs, but one memory stands out.
On Tuesday’s edition of The Dan Le Batard Show, the Golden State tactician was asked if there was one moment in particular that stood out when reminiscing on all the situations in which the power forward forged his reputation of being a loose cannon.
Kerr knew right away. “For sure, the Jordan Poole incident,” he responded when asked to name the angriest he has ever been with his pupil. Back on October 5, 2022, Green punched the now-Wizards guard in the face during a training-camp session, which eventually overshadowed the rest of their campaign.
Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr made a confession about what it was like to live through the incident between Draymond Green and Jordan Poole in 2022. https://t.co/spmqXNaAXl
— Bolavip US (@bolavipus) September 18, 2024
“Draymond and I are a lot alike in many ways. People probably wouldn’t see that from the outside,” Steve defended his player, but there are limits you can’t step on. “He crossed the line with Jordan and he knows it. He knew it immediately, and it made that season incredibly difficult for everybody. (The Poole) story has been regurgitated many times. That’s probably the time I was most angry. There’s your headline.”
You’d hope that after an altercation of this sort, Draymond would finally restrain himself, but you could say it has been the complete opposite. Just this year, the veteran suffered two extended suspensions as a result of on-court acts that were deemed appalling by the league officials.
However, the player was very open about the infamous suspension that saw him miss at least 16 games at the start of last season. Not only did the Bay Area squad lose their best defender, his reputation was under scrutiny after punching Jusuf Nurkic in a November matchup against the Suns.
“It was a very weird space,” the four-time champion said. “It’s like, I need you all. So a part of me is like, yo, I need to be coming in every day. But on the other side of the fence, I really need to get so far away from this shit. It’s kind of this weird thing. And I think we found a balance.”
Kerr also referred to “those incredible years” with Kevin Durant as a Warriors player, in which they earned two NBA titles in 2017 and 2018
While Draymond Green’s incident with Kevin Durant in may have contributed to the 14-time All-Star’s departure to Brooklyn, coach Kerr already felt that the two-time Finals MVP was already looking to move in his career on throughout that season. This was, of course, after three incredible campaigns in Golden State.
KD contributed to winning back-to-back NBA titles in 2017 and 2018, and even made it to a third-consecutive NBA Finals in 2019, but eventually lost that series. “Those years were incredible,” Kerr said of his time with the future Hall of Famer.
Kevin’s decision to leave the Warriors and join the Nets has received a lot of attention over the years. “I loved coaching Kevin,” he assured. “I think that last year that he was here, he was visibly wanting to move on. We could feel it, and that was his choice as a free agent. Everything that he gave to us and brought to us. We will be thankful for that forever.”
Over the fact that he felt that the now-Suns star was ready to move on that 2018-19 campaign. “You can tell when somebody is happy or not… It was obvious to everyone that Kevin just needed a new challenge. He was looking to move on,” he explained this week with LeBatard.
