Warriors’ Draymond Green was ‘pissed’ Kevin Durant said he needed help

Embattled Warriors forward Draymond Green was annoyed at everyone calling for him to get help in the wake of the spinning slap he delivered to Suns center Jusuf Nurkic in mid-December.

Green was originally punished with an indefinite suspension — which officially ended Saturday after 12 games — after he hit the Phoenix player, which came just a little over a month after he served a previous suspension for putting Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert into a headlock. Following the December incident, Nurkic went viral when he told reporters, “That brother needs help,” in his postgame remarks.

That comment laid the groundwork for media personalities, NBA fans and even others within the NBA, including former Warriors teammate Kevin Durant, to offer their opinions on Green’s mildly surprising stretch of on-court assaults. Speaking on his podcast published Monday — his first episode since before the season — Green said he initially pointed the finger right back at the people making those kinds of statements, but quickly realized that approach was unproductive.

“And as I sat and listened to those people, quite naturally, the ones that I saw saying I needed help I’m like, ‘Who said that? This person said that? No way this person said that,’” Green recalled, pointing at the camera. “But you go through stages of understanding things, you go through stages of how you may feel, you go through stages of thoughts. And so my initial thought was, ‘He said that?’ And what I realized is you’re heading back down the same path you’ve been allowing yourself to go down with that mindset.”

He added that it was at that moment he realized he needed to acknowledge he “f—ked up,” and instead listen to what the people were saying rather than get upset at who said it. Still, it didn’t stop him from being initially “pissed” that Durant was one of the players making those comments. But even that frustration subsided when he said he saw it “through the right mindset, through the right lens” and decided to not take the comment as a pejorative.

“Maybe he’s not saying 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 said. “For me, it was a very proud moment for me because I said, ‘You’re ready for growth. That’s a step in the right direction.’”

While it’d be fair to be skeptical of self-proclaimed moments of personal growth, the NBA’s decision to reinstate Green does indicate that the league and the Warriors believe he’s made the proper changes to get to come back and play professional basketball again. Perhaps what he said on his podcast is indicative of that change.

Of course, it’s one thing to talk about change, but it’s another thing entirely to showcase that change. Whatever Green says he’s fixed only means so much if it doesn’t prevent him from physically attacking people on the court. Given his history, that’s definitely easier said than done.