The Golden State Warriors’ 120-97 victory over the Orlando Magic didn’t end the way fans would have liked. Veteran Draymond Green got into a visible public spat with head coach Steve Kerr, leading the four-time NBA champion to leave the court in the final 20 minutes of the game.
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Speculation has naturally been rife in the media about the state of the Warriors’ locker room. However, former LA Lakers star Richard Jefferson isn’t buying too much into the noise.
When Kerr was asked about what had transpired between him and the tenured veteran, he simply said that Draymond “had it out a little bit,” so the decision was made to get him back to the locker room to calm down.
Draymond later asserted that it was a basketball-related discussion that had gone off the rails, and the team was best served by his being removed from the situation. “S***t happens. We move forward,” he added.
Jefferson and Allie Clifton discussed the matter on an episode of the Road Trippin’ Show, and the former NBA champion explained that players like Green are naturally “hyper emotional” and “fiery competitive,” which is exactly how their teams need them to be on the court.
“Your goal as a coach is you don’t want them to stop, and just listen. You want them to keep it, but somewhat control that fire. So, if that fire ever gets too high to take a walk and come back, that’s a normal thing,” Jefferson explained.
“Was the argument they were having a normal argument? Probably not, right? It looked like a more intense argument … they probably have it over the 10 years, but this season, that looked like a very intense one. Was the walk that he took a very intense and long walk to back into the locker room? That was probably another part of it,” Jefferson suggested, adding that this has been Green’s normal way of dealing with things.
The analyst argued that nobody really knows what their argument was about.
“Was Steve frustrated at the team, and Draymond was defending the team? I don’t know … They have won 4 championships together, all the finals. We have seen [them] do all the things. So, unless more information comes out, there are no suspensions,” he added.
“We can see the argument as players. Do players walk off and go in the back? Yes. The context of why you might walk off, it could be foul trouble. It could be the referee pissed you off, and you don’t want to get a technical. It could be because you got to go to the f***** bathroom. We don’t know,” he strongly reiterated.
Jefferson also noted that there might be internal suspensions within the team, but they have always moved on from these setbacks.
Statements from Kerr and Draymond both show that they seem to have moved on from whatever the issue was. At this point, it’s best to assume that everything is okie dokie in the Warriors camp.
