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Kevin Durant, Draymond Green blame Steve Kerr, Bob Myers for Warriors fallout

In a candid interview between Draymond Green and Kevin Durant, they talk about how the Warriors' handling of an on-court argument in 2018 led to Durant leaving.
Credit: AP
Golden State Warriors' Kevin Durant, left, and Draymond Green sit on the bench during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Houston Rockets Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

SAN FRANCISCO — Are Warriors head coach Steve Kerr and General Manager Bob Myers to blame for Kevin Durant leaving the team in 2019?

In Draymond Green's YouTube show for Bleacher Report, "Chips" he had Kevin Durant on to talk about a multitude of things including what drove Kevin Durant to ultimately leave the Warriors.

On Wednesday's Locked On Warriors podcast, host Wes Goldberg and SB Nation's Brady Klopfer reacted to the interview. 

Green said in the interview that for his own sanity, he needed to ask Durant if their infamous argument during a game against the Clippers in a 2018 game led to him leaving the Warriors.

“It wasn’t the argument, it was how Steve Kerr acted like it didn’t happen,” Durant said. “(General Manager) Bob Myers tried to just discipline you and think that would put the mask over everything. I really felt like that was such a big situation for us as a group, the first time we went through something like that. We had to get that s*** all out."

Durant said the team should have acknowledged it and wiped their hands of it rather dance around it.

"I'd rather we be who we say we are," Durant said. "Family first, communication is key. Like, we didn't show that. And that's what rubbed me the wrong way more than anything."

Green recounted being told in long conversations with Myers and Kerr to apologize and that he was going to be suspended and Green said to Durant he told Myers and Kerr they were going to mess it up.

"I said the only person that can make this right is me and K and there is nothing y'all can do and y'all are going to f*** this up. And in my opinion, they f***ed it up," Green said.

"I think so too," Durant said.

Green ended up being suspended by the Warriors for one game.

Reaction to the interview

Locked On Warriors host Wes Goldberg said he wasn't surprised that Bob Myers tried to mediate the conflict.

"Bob Myers is the former attorney, former agent guy, of course he's gonna try to get in there and mediate. 'Hey I'm gonna try to broker an apology between Draymond Green and Kevin Durant, and when that doesn't happen I'm gonna punish Draymond Green. In hindsight I think it was a fair suspension, but I don't think it was an effective suspension and I think those are two different things," Goldberg said.

Goldberg said obviously we're not hearing from Steve Kerr in this interview and only hearing from the two players' perspective but that it sounds like Kerr took a hands off approach to the whole conflict.

"I do wonder if Steve Kerr could go back and re-do it if he would, because that whole thing just didn't feel in line with what it is that he tends to do and did during most of those three years," Goldberg said.

On Locked On Warriors, Klopfer said ultimately he doesn't think this conflict between them and the Warriors' handling of it actually changed Durant's path.

"In my opinion, nothing that happened changed anything," Klopfer said. "I think Kevin Durant was gone no matter how this situation played out. I think had he and Klay Thompson stayed healthy, they would've won the championship regardless of how fractured the locker room might've been. I don't think there were actually any repercussions here."

Get the rest of the reaction from the Locked On Warriors podcast on YouTube below or click here to listen wherever you get your podcasts.

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