Warriors forward Draymond Green and ex-Golden State star Kevin Durant had a chat about the Warriors dynasty recently, perhaps you’ve heard of it.
In a one-on-one conversation between the two, produced by Bleacher Report, Durant and Green recalled their infamous spat at the end of a loss to the Clippers in LA, back in 2018. The argument started on the court and carried into the locker room, setting the tone for an awkward final season for Durant in the Bay Area.
But was the argument the reason that Durant left the Warriors? Durant told Green that no, it wasn’t. Rather, it was what happened afterward that pushed him out the door. The most common headline from the clip below is that Green and Durant blamed coach Steve Kerr and general manager Bob Myers for the fallout. But Durant blames the locker room, too, not just the Warriors brass.
Give the clip a listen, but the passage I’ve written here isn’t receiving enough attention.
“I remember watching The Last Dance,” Durant said. “And when Scottie didn’t go into the game, the whole team — in the locker room — said, ‘Scottie, that was fucked up that you did that.’ We needed that. We just needed to throw all that shit out on the table and say, ‘Yo, Dray, [Kevin], like, that was fucked up that we even had to go through that; let’s just wipe our hands with that and go finish the task.
“I don’t think we did that. We tried to dance around it. I just didn’t like how all of that, just the vibe between all of that, it just made shit weird to me.”
I’m hearing that it wasn’t just management that “fucked it up.” It was also the players on the team.
Warriors superstar Stephen Curry wasn’t there to tell Green and Durant they had messed up, and that appears to be a vital part of why Golden State’s dynasty fell apart. He was in the Bay Area that night, nursing a groin injury.
Curry helped foster an understanding between his two teammates as the season progressed, but if he was there in that moment, perhaps he could have led the locker room to call Green and Durant out.
I’m not an insider, but it’s my impression that some in the Warriors organization are hesitant to call Green out on anything. That could have included his harsh words for Durant that night in LA, which came as a result of Durant calling out an obvious error made by Green at the end of the game.
It’s always Green that does the calling out, but throughout his numerous gaffes, such as at the end of the infamous Clippers game, getting suspended in the 2016 NBA Finals, and even his inability to shoot point-blank shots, it seems to me that Green isn’t held accountable.
Overall, this is a tired topic. It’s ancient history. But how will Kerr and Myers react to being blamed for the end of the Warriors dynasty? It’s likely not much to worry about. No matter what Green says or does, it’s rare he’s held accountable. I don’t see that changing now.
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