Despite his many flaws — two suspensions this season, punching teammate Jordan Poole last season — Warriors star Draymond Green will go into the summer knowing that his longtime coach still has his back.
In his season-ending news conference Thursday, coach Steve Kerr called the team’s relationship with the volatile Green “complex” but added that he’s one of the most loyal, smartest and competitive players he has been around.
Kerr was asked if Green will be a changed person moving forward or if the team accepts that the veteran’s unpredictable behavior could lead to another suspension – like the ones he served this season for grabbing the neck of Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert and striking Phoenix’s Jusuf Nurkić.
What followed was a 738-word response from Kerr.
Here are the highlights:
“I have so much faith in Draymond because I know him so well as a human being,” Kerr said. “He’s flawed. We’re all flawed. But he would be the first to tell you he’s probably more flawed than the rest of us, right. I mean, he’s the one who has had these transgressions, not the other guys, it’s been him. He would be the first to tell you that.
“But he’s one of the most loyal people I’ve ever met. He’s one of the most competitive, he’s one of the smartest players I’ve ever been around. And yet he makes these decisions that hurt the team, that aren’t smart. So how do you reconcile all that? It’s really difficult.
“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. 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.
“What happened over the last year was it went from maybe him yelling at me and us getting into a tiff, or him getting ejected or him running up his technicals or getting a flagrant foul, to a, wait a second, it turned violent, you know, he punched Jordan, you know, he grabbed Rudy Gobert by the neck, he flailed at Nurc, like that stuff, that is, just by basic laws of society, basic norms, like, you can’t do that, right.
“So at that point, you know, when the League suspended him, it was the best thing to happen to Draymond. His career was on the line, and it is on the line every day. So, as someone who loves Draymond and values him so much, I am going to continue to help him any way that I can to live his best life, to be the best version of himself, which he really was for the last two months. I’ll be really honest, like during the suspension, I was sitting there, like, can he actually get a few sessions of therapy and change? I don’t think that’s possible.
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“But whatever he did over the last three months, he was the best version of himself, not just on the court, in the locker room, leading the young guys. His teammates would all tell you how great he was. He had the ejection in Orlando, which became a national story. I don’t know, maybe it’s just because I, you know, I understand him so well, I didn’t mind the ejection. I mean, yeah, it was bad timing, but if you want to embrace the fact that Draymond is this insane competitor who is just going to play with so much emotion and passion, which makes our team so much better, then you kind of have to accept, all right, he’s going to get kicked out a few games a year. That’s my approach. The other stuff, can’t happen.
“You know, the physical acts, that will cost him his career, not only in the NBA but beyond the next career. He knows that. So, that’s, you know, Draymond’s complex, his relationship with our franchise is complex, but at the core of it is a deep loyalty and passion and love, and we share that with him, and that’s really tricky to reconcile, so you almost don’t even try to reconcile it. You help him through it and you make sure he’s the best version of himself and you keep pushing. Then you say something’s unforgivable and then you forgive him for it. I mean, let’s be honest. But I think he did cross a line with the stuff that happened early in the season and he knows it. And his, you know, the rest of his career, he knows the League won’t allow him to cross, we won’t let him allow him to cross that line again.”