Draymond Green set the record straight on his relationship with Kevin Durant after the Warriors‘ game on Sunday, telling reporters that he and Durant won’t be broken apart because of a previous locker room incident between the All-Star duo.
Green was suspended in November following a heated verbal exchange with Durant, an altercation that included several profanities and Green telling Durant, “We don’t need you,” according to Yahoo’s Chris Haynes. Green’s anger stemmed from a disagreement in the final seconds of a Nov. 15 game, with the Warriors labeling his conduct as “detrimental to the team”.
“I know the hope is that [incident] will make us fall off, but it ain’t,” Green said, according to ESPN’s Nick Friedell. “It’ll never happen like that. We good.”
Green had a major voice in recruiting Durant back in 2016, with both stars playing key roles in helping the Warriors win titles in 2017 and 2018. Golden State has vastly improved since placing the locker room incident behind them, winning eight of their last 10 games and sporting a 23-11 record entering the final week of 2018.
“We sat down and rapped,” Green said of his discussion with Durant. “And that’s it. It ain’t really about re-creating the wheel. Brothers get into it all the time. Y’all sit down and y’all figure it out, ain’t nobody else going to figure it out for you. Can’t nobody else figure it out for you. We sit down as men, we figure it out and we move forward.”
There’s more from the Pacific Division today:
- Longtime G League guard Andre Ingram is continuing to strive for an NBA career, Dan Woike of the Los Angeles Times writes. Ingram had a storybook NBA debut this past spring, getting a call-up with the Lakers after 11 straight seasons in the G League. Ingram currently plays for the team’s minor league affiliate, the South Bay Lakers, in hopes of receiving another shot during the 2018/19 season.
- LeBron James has apologized for quoting lyrics that included the line, “getting that jewish money” on his Instagram account. “Apologies, for sure, if I offended anyone,” James told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. “That’s not why I chose to share that lyric. I always [post lyrics]. That’s what I do. I ride in my car, I listen to great music, and that was the byproduct of it. So I actually thought it was a compliment, and obviously it wasn’t through the lens of a lot of people. My apologies. It definitely was not the intent, obviously, to hurt anybody.”
- Kings guard Buddy Hield revealed last week that several websites recorded his age wrong, including the NBA’s official publication at NBA.com. Hield turned 26 years old on Dec. 17, despite most outlets listing him as turning 25. “That’s their fault, not my fault,” Hield said, according to Benjamin Hoffman of the New York Times. “The first time I saw it on Wikipedia, my mom said, ‘Why do they have your age wrong?’ I said, ‘I have no idea.’”