Green apologizes to Warriors for halftime tirade
OAKLAND, Calif. — All-Star forward Draymond Green apologized to his teammates Monday for his tirade at halftime of the Warriors’ overtime victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday night and vowed it will never happen again.
In a lengthy statement, he admitted he made a mistake and said he let his “emotions get the best of me.”
“As a leader of this team, I can’t do that because it sets a bad precedent for how everything is ran around here, for how everything should be ran, for how everything has been ran, and how everything will be ran going forward. It won’t happen again.”
Draymond Green
“You know I made a mistake, I admitted my mistakes to my teammates, my coaching staff. I apologize to my teammates, my coaching staff, this organization. That wasn’t the right way to handle what needed to be handled.
“As a leader of this team, I can’t do that because it sets a bad precedent for how everything is ran around here, for how everything should be ran, for how everything has been ran, and how everything will be ran going forward. It won’t happen again.
While he acknowledged his emotions “kind of got ahead of me,” he said any reports that he quit on his team are incorrect.
“I will never quit on my coaching staff, I will never quit on this organization. This organization has given me everything that I can ask for. So I support and represent this organization to the best of my ability. That’s not who I am. That’s not who I’ve been and not who I will become. “
Stephen Curry said the Warriors know that Green would “never quit” on his teammates.
“He’s invested in what we’re doing. Obviously he’s an emotional guy, a fiery guy, that’s what we love about him, what he brings to the court. It spilled over to the locker room,” he said.
Curry said Saturday’s incident wasn’t the first time something like this has happened, but “we came out still united.” He downplayed the severity of the incident.
“You think that’s the first time somebody’s raised their voice? Or a player to player, or sometimes unfortunately player to coach, it doesn’t matter. That’s happened before and just the circumstances where it was heard,” he said.
“We’re in the spotlight because of our record. So it doesn’t bother us that everyone’s talking about it. We know, handled it internally, and we all love each other and we’re all good.”
Warriors coach Steve Kerr
Curry also joked: “You can write that story, sure. We’re in shambles right now.”
Warriors coach Steve Kerr brushed off the tirade, saying: “We don’t care.”
“This is the way life is these days. There’s 24-hour sports talk shows on radio and on TV. We’re in the spotlight because of our record. So it doesn’t bother us that everyone’s talking about it. We know, handled it internally, and we all love each other and we’re all good,” he said.
On ESPN’s First Take, Stephen A. Smith relayed an account of Green’s rant, saying the tirade began after Green took offense to Kerr showing film to the team that included a clip of a mistake made by Green, prompting the Warriors forward to “go off.”
When informed of Smith’s comments, Kerr sarcastically said: “Oh Stephen A. said that? Oh sorry. It’s my mistake. I didn’t see him in the locker room. So if he was there, then yeah. My fault.”
The Warriors are set to host the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday.
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