SAN FRANCISCO – The Warriors’ Hall of Fame duo of coach Steve Kerr and forward Draymond Green have had more than a few confrontations over the course of their illustrious partnership.
Green and Kerr once again became the center of the NBA news sphere after a heated argument during the third quarter of the Warriors’ victory over Orlando led to Green – who was ejected from the previous game against Phoenix – walking back to the locker room.
Green returned to the bench for the fourth quarter, but he did not step back onto the court as the Warriors improved to 15-15.
Kerr said it was Green’s decision to leave the bench, and the coach’s choice not to play Green again, but both parties emphasized that they would “move forward” from the ugly episode.
“Tempers spilled over,” Green said. “We play basketball. It’s an emotional game. People lose their emotions sometimes. It happens. It is what it is. We’ve been at this for a long time. Sometimes when you’re with people for a long time, there’s a level of comfort and (expletive) happens. We move forward.”
History suggests that they will.
In the 2016 NBA Finals, Green was suspended for Game 5 after he punched LeBron James in the crotch. Kerr had his player’s back after the suspension, which was caused by Green accruing his fourth flagrant foul point.
“I approached him before he approached me,” Kerr said. “I told him, ‘You don’t owe anybody an apology. Without you, we’re not even here. We’re all on vacation at this point.’”
Kerr has also had Green’s back when the Warriors star stomped on Domantas Sabonis’ chest in the 2023 postseason, struck Jusuf Nurkic and choked Rudy Gobert in 2024, and accrued five technical fouls in the first round of the 2025 playoffs against Houston.
But the coach has also given Green his unwavering support during internal conflicts.
In March of 2019 during a tumultuous season, Kerr was caught on a broadcast by lip readers saying “I’m so (expletive) tired of Draymond’s (expletive).” When asked by reporters what he said to Green following that, Kerr cryptically said, “That’s private.” Green was more talkative.
“It don’t bother me. [Stuff] happens,” Green said. “I’m sure there are plenty of times coaches are tired of players. There’s times players are tired of coaches. That’s the nature of the game we play. I don’t take it personally.”
During that same year, Green was caught arguing with then-teammate Kevin Durant after not passing Durant the ball during crunch time of a game against the Clippers. Durant later said that incident was one of the reasons he decided to leave the team. Kerr declined to blame either player for the blow-up in an interview with Bill Simmons.
“If this had happened at a practice, you can cover it up,” Kerr told the podcaster in November 2019. “Actually, we had several things over the past few years that have happened that never made it out, and we’re really proud of that.”
As it turned out, not everything that happens in practice stays under wraps.
When Green was caught on video punching then-teammate Jordan Poole during a practice before the 2022-23 season, the coach focused on how the video was leaked, rather than Green’s punch.
“In 32 years, I’ve probably seen 20-plus fistfights at practice,” Kerr said. “That should not make it out beyond the walls of our practice facility. And it did. That’s the problem. We have to get better as an organization.”
After Green was suspended indefinitely – eventually 12 games – for his actions against Gobert and Nurkic, Kerr defended Green’s character in a conference call.
“The No. 1 thing I would say is, if we decided he wasn’t worth it, you know, then we would have moved off of him years ago,” Kerr said. “But he’s worth it and he’s worth it not only because of the banners that are hanging out there, because he really is a wonderful human being.”
“He is somebody who I love deeply, who I care for, and in some ways I love him because of his flaws, because he’s so human.”
That mentality has defined their relationship. The two have had their fair share of incidents, both on the court and in the locker room, during 11 years together.
If history has shown one thing, it is that both Kerr and Green were serious on Monday night: They will move forward.
