Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green has been reinstated by the NBA after being issued an indefinite suspension following a flagrant foul against Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nurkic. He revealed Monday via his podcast how “pissed” he initially was when former Warriors teammate Kevin Durant said he hoped Green “gets the help he needs” in the aftermath, but has since gotten over it. Durant insists he didn’t mean to offend his former Golden State teammate.
“I’m glad he’s back. I’m glad he can move past that. Draymond is an incredible teammate.” Durant told reporters on Monday. “He got his times where he loses temper, but everybody has those times and I’m sure they all [are] happy to have him back. But I didn’t mean no ill will by what I said. I know some people look at me as this malicious snake, passive-aggressive. I know how people feel about me sometimes, so when I say shit, I don’t mean no harm by nobody. I don’t mean to disrespect him or his family if he felt that way. I’m just glad he’s back on the court.”
Durant thinks the public and Green could’ve misunderstood his response and provided clarity on his thought process.
“You got to look at it from my perspective, like before I had made those comments, [people were] saying Draymond’s going to therapy and shit,” Durant said. “Like what am I supposed to think? They say somebody going to therapy, I’m hoping he gets better from that, and hope he learned from whatever he feels like he needs to learn from going to therapy.”
Green said that though he was initially “pissed,” Durant’s comments helped him have a “breakthrough.”
“I was like maybe you shouldn’t hear ‘help’ so negatively,” Green said. “Like maybe you’re listening to the word ‘help’ with the same mindset that the word ‘help’ meant when you were 15 years old. So maybe you shouldn’t hear that negatively, so negatively, and maybe he’s not saying that as negatively as you’re taking it. And even if he was, I made a decision in that moment that I wasn’t going to take it that way.”
Green’s one-week ramp-up could help him return to the hardwood as early as Saturday for a matchup against the Milwaukee Bucks.