San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Curry can’t hide exasperation with Green
Team leader shows visible irritation as antics return after supposed reform
The Golden State Warriors are a desperate team. Barely clinging to life with 10 games to play entering Friday, their season is down to just a handful of opportunities, each moment too precious to waste.
These Warriors have never been in such a desperate situation, not with their full squad, not in a non-pandemic year, not with a retooled team that was supposed to bounce back from last year’s disjointed disappointment.
Fraught and tense situations can provide clarity and focus. And it seems the clarity the Warriors gained is this: They are at long last sick of Draymond Green’s antics.
Most importantly, Stephen Curry has had enough.
Green was ejected just 3 minutes, 36 seconds into the first quarter of the game in Orlando on Wednesday, the second of a critical back-to-back. Green was called for a technical foul after making contact with official Ray Acosta, an obvious no-no. Green immediately started Draymonding — yapping intensely at Acosta even while Curry attempted to intercede, patting him, trying to calm him down. As Acosta walked back to the scorer’s table and Green headed toward the Warriors’ bench, Green kept talking. He said words you can’t say, “egregious profane language” according to the pool report. So he got another technical and was ejected.
That, sadly, isn’t newsworthy. Not after 12 years of seeing this time and again.
What made this moment remarkable was Curry’s reaction. As Green walked toward the locker room, Curry shook his head in frustration. He bent over, his face registering disbelief. Head coach Steve Kerr came over and patted Curry’s back, trying to comfort him. Curry stood up, clapped his hands fiercely, pulled his jersey up over his face, then pulled it
down and wiped his eyes with it.
Wiping away what looked like hot, angry tears of frustration. The exhaustion of having to deal with this situation yet again. The bubbling over of carrying the burden of this desperate situation, of being let down once more by a teammate he has gone to bat for time and again, of being betrayed at such a critical juncture.
“We need him,” Curry said after the game, after the Warriors had collected the muchneeded win and emotions had settled. “He knows that. We all know that. Whatever it takes to keep him on the floor that’s what’s got to happen, especially at this point in the year.”
It was Green’s first ejection since returning from his monthlong suspension. On his podcast Thursday he addressed the issue for a few minutes of the 30minute show.
“I got ejected four minutes into the game,” Green said on “The Draymond Green Show.” “I just can’t do it. Regardless of what was said. To Steph’s point, I have to be on the floor.”
Green seemed to think if only he’d angle his nasty comments more toward his bench all would have been fine.
“I’m not overreacting to this because of everything that happened in the beginning of the season,” he said. “Since I’ve returned everything’s headed in the right direction. Hit a little bump in the road. Get over it and keep going.”
But Curry’s reaction made Wednesday night’s moment seem like more than just a bump in the road. Curry has stood by Green’s side faithfully for a dozen years. But in Orlando, his composure cracked.
Because Curry knows he is the one who has to pull this team to the finish line, push it to the end. He’s the one giving everything he has, every night, at age 36. It’s an exhausting, emotional task and Curry needs to be able to rely on his partners. On Wednesday, he couldn’t.
“The burden that Steph Curry has on him for this franchise is unfair,” Kerr said earlier this year.
The Warriors find themselves in this desperate situation, in large part, because Green’s meltdowns early in the season caused him to miss 21 games. The Warriors went 10-11 in those games, never able to make a push.
Just four days before the Orlando game, in Minnesota where the Warriors would face Rudy Gobert, the player Green choked in November, Kerr praised Green’s behavior since returning from his suspension.
“I really think his career was on the line at that point,” Kerr said of Green’s indefinite suspension. “It was clear the league wanted to see real change. We all did.
“Could you really make a significant change within a month?,” Kerr wondered. “He’s done it. He’s figured it out. … Couldn’t be more proud of the way Draymond has responded and gotten his career and his life back on track. It’s wonderful.”
But four days later, there was Green again, hurting his team with what Curry called “a selfinflicted wound.” What Kerr called “unforgivable” on his radio spot on 95.7. On a night the Warriors already didn’t have Jonathan Kuminga, Green couldn’t figure out that his need to curse at an official was a stupid thing to do.
Green got lucky. The Warriors pulled out the victory, with gutsy performances from players who understood the crisis point and behaved accordingly.
“It was a beautiful team effort,” Curry said.
Curry sealed the win in the final minute with a 3-pointer and celebrated with his “Night Night” gesture before heading to the bench and karate kicking a couple of empty chairs.
“Letting out a little steam,” Curry said.
He headed to the locker room where, outside the door in street clothes, Green was waiting for him. Green imitated Curry’s “Night Night” move, a nervy motion considering that his behavior could have helped say night-night to the Warriors’ chances. The two teammates embraced.
When he returned from suspension in January, I asked Green whether he was concerned that his behavior was wasting some of Curry’s remaining prime years. He said he didn’t look at it that way.
“I care more about the person,” Green said. “How am I affecting the person? … Forcing him to carry more weight than he carries, I affected the person.”
Green affected the person on Wednesday. And Curry reacted in the most human way. With hot tears of frustration.