Draymond Green‘s ejection during the Golden State Warriors‘ win over the Orlando Magic on Wednesday gave a lot to talk about. Steve Kerr recently addressed this situation, defending Stephen Curry from the critics.
While it was Green the one who got ejected early in the game, Steph also got in the eye of the storm as the cameras captured his reaction to that moment. It even led to some people questioning Curry’s ability to lead, but Kerr made it clear there’s no one to blame except for Green.
“Draymond is a grown man; he knows he has to handle his business. Any mention of Steph being culpable is just ridiculous,” Kerr said. “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 it.
“He was the first one out there trying to talk Draymond off, and handled it the right way. 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. But that’s not Steph’s fault, that’s Draymond’s fault and Steph was trying to do everything he could to get him [Green] out of there.“
Kerr explains how Green’s ejection affected Curry
“Every game being so important and us fighting for everything, for Draymond to get kicked out three minutes in, it was really unforgivable,” Kerr told Mark Willard and Dan Dibley on 95.7 The Game’s Willard & Dibs. “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.’ Steph is such a fighter, such a competitor, he wants it so badly and I think all of that combined led to that reaction.”
Green was ejected for the fourth time this season, and even though that suggests he may need to control his temper, it looks like it’s an issue that may also involve Curry as the team leader.
“I could see how emotional he was and how rattled he was by it, and I just wanted to make sure he was alright,“ Kerr said. “But number two remind him, we got to go. We got to go play and that’s about as simple as it gets.”
Curry and Green have been together for 12 seasons now, 10 of them under Kerr, winning four NBA championships with six NBA Finals appearances.
