Kevin Durant, Draymond Green put onus on front office for Durant's exit from Golden State
Two of basketball's biggest stars are finally setting the record straight.
In a new interview on Bleacher Report’s "Chips," Kevin Durant and Draymond Green sat down for the first time since they played together to discuss Durant's decision to leave Golden State after the duo's infamous on-court argument in 2018 – and it has everything to do with the Warriors' front office.
"How much did our argument against the Clippers drive you to ultimately leave the Warriors?" Draymond asked bluntly.
"It wasn’t the argument, it was they way Steve Kerr acted like it didn’t happen," Durant replied. "Bob Myers tried to just discipline you and think that would put the mask over everything. I really felt like that was such a big situation for us as a group this first time we went through something like that."
"I remember watching ‘The Last Dance’ and when Scottie [Pippen] didn't go into the game, the whole team in the locker room said, 'Scottie, that was f----- up that you did that.' We needed that." Durant continued. "We just needed to throw all of that s--- out on the table and say, ‘Yo, Dray, K, that was f---ed 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 [and] I just didn't like how all of that – just the vibe between all of that, it just made s--- weird to me.
"Communication is key – we didn't show that, and that's what rubbed me the wrong way more than anything."
Durant and Green were teammates for three years and won back-to-back NBA championships (2017-18) with the Warriors. The argument in question took place at the start of the 2018-19 regular season against the LA Clippers.
With time running out, Green failed to get a shot off at the end of regulation, which sent the tilt to overtime. Durant snapped at Green, presumably, for not passing him the ball, which drew a larger-than-life reaction from Green, who was seen on camera calling Durant a "b----."
The argument spilled over into the locker room and Green was ultimately suspended for one game for conduct detrimental to the team.
Seven months later, in June of 2019, Durant left the Warriors to join the Brooklyn Nets.
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With that said, is it possible that the argument between the two All-Stars wasn’t what hastened Durant’s exit from Golden State, but instead management’s mishandling of their dispute?
If you ask Shannon Sharpe, he isn’t buying it.
On Thursday’s "Undisputed," Sharpe discussed why he believes "there was nothing" Bob Myers or Steve Kerr could have done that would’ve changed the outcome.
"It wasn’t like this incident caused them not to win the title, or it drove a wedge between them that then became intolerable. That’s not what happened. Whatever happened to personal responsibility? Personal accountability? Draymond, you said something that you shouldn’t have said. … That’s on Draymond."
Sharpe’s co-host Skip Bayless echoed his thoughts completely, saying that this is a textbook case of Durant and Green playing the blame game and pointing the finger.
"This for me was a ‘Children, grow up’ moment because it was fascinating to me that all of a sudden … they blame the adults. They blame the coach and the general manager."
Emmanuel Acho also believes that Green is at fault for the way things went down, which he detailed on Wednesday’s "Speak For Yourself."
"This one’s simple, let’s not make it complicated. It’s Draymond Green. Draymond Green started the fire, and Draymond Green did not put the fire out, and as a result, [he] is to blame for Kevin Durant leaving the Warriors.
"Now, it’s very easy for Draymond Green and Kevin Durant, who just won a gold medal together, to sit there and blame other gentlemen that are not present … That’s easy as can be. But Draymond, you were on the court, not Bob Myers."
While the air seems to be cleared between Green and Durant, Durant is no longer a part of the Warriors.
Green is, which means we will all wait and see what Kerr and Myers have to say about his finger-pointing.
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