The discourse surrounding Draymond Green's ejection has somehow stretched its way to blame of Stephen Curry. The questions being asked of Green's fourth ejection of the season Thursday night and ninth and 10th technical fouls, have turned, at least in part, to Curry and Steve Kerr's leadership.
Kerr joined Willard and Dibs Thursday afternoon and discussed the ejection, both taking some blame for Green, and taking it off Curry's shoulders.
There was a lot to chew on. Here are some major points of note:
Called the ejection "unforgivable" in the context of discussing Curry's emotional reaction:
"I mean, every game being so important, and us fighting for everything, and then for Draymond to get kicked out three minutes in, it was really unforgivable. And I think Steph may have even been a little upset with himself for not pulling Draymond out of there, but I think mostly it was just, 'Come on, man, we need this [win].' And then Steph is such a fighter. He's such a competitor. He wants it so badly. And I think all of that combined just led to that reaction."
Kerr's regret that he didn't talk to Green after the win in Miami:
"I actually am kicking myself a little bit because I thought, for the most part, from the last six weeks or so, since Draymond came back from the suspension, for the most part, he has been really good with the refs.
"And I think he's found a really good balance of being competitive and feisty and playing with an edge, but not going overboard. And a lot of that starts with just staying off the refs.
"And I thought in the Miami game, he was on the refs too much, and I should have intervened. I should have talked to him after the game and just reminded him that this all starts for him finding that right spot. It all starts with being able to stay off the refs and I didn't, so I'm upset with myself for that."
On whether the Warriors could have pulled him away from the refs after the first technical, and what would have happened if they lost:
"As for what happens after he gets the first tech, that's completely up to Draymond. I watched the whole replay of it. We had multiple players out there. We had multiple security guys out there.
"At that point, we're not going to drag him back to the bench. That makes makes it look even worse. That looks like he's trying to get to the refs. So at that point, it's really up to him to know, I can't. I gotta end it. And he knows that.
"I've talked to him about it. He's talked to Steph about it. He apologized to Steph and Klay and the whole team. He feels terrible about it.
"But he made a huge mistake. And all I can say is thank God we won, because had we lost, this would be a much, much bigger issue."
On the criticisms of Curry's leadership, and whether anyone else is culpable in not stopping Green:
"Well, there's culpability for me because I'm his coach. And as I just detailed, I felt like in hindsight, I look back at that Miami game and I regret not saying something, because I thought he was on them too much. So that's definitely my fault.
"But, to your point, Draymond knows. I mean, he's a grown man, he's got to handle his own business.
"Any mention of Steph being culpable is just ridiculous. The way Steph has carried our franchise, represented our franchise for 15 years, it's absolutely ridiculous. He was the first one out there, you saw. He was the first one out there trying to talk Draymond off and handled it the right way.
"And the reason Draymond got kicked out is because as he was walking back to the bench, he muttered an expletive that the refs heard and so he deserved it. You can't do that.
"But that's not Steph fault. That's Draymond's fault. And Steph was trying to do everything he could to get him out of there."
To summarize:
- Kerr blames himself for not talking to Green after the Miami game. He felt like Green ratcheted up his interactions with the referees in a precipitous way.
- He rejected criticism of Curry's leadership - though Curry himself wished he did more to pull Green away - saying Green is "a grown man," and needs to have the awareness to not get thrown out of a game.
- Green addressed the team at halftime during the game, and apologized to Kerr, Curry, Thompson, and the rest of the team
- If the Warriors had lost, the ejection "would have been a much, much bigger issue."
Kerr discussed more on the ejection, along with a number of other topics, including Jonathan Kuminga's status. Listen to the full interview above, or right here:
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