Draymond Green‘s Game 5 suspension during the 2016 NBA Finals was the monumental moment that sparked the turn of the tide from a favorable 3-1 lead for the Golden State Warriors, to the Cleveland Cavaliers surging with three straight wins to crown themselves NBA champions.

While basketball is a team sport, Green was largely blamed and seen as one of the main culprits in the downfall of a team that only had one game between them and a second consecutive trophy.

The offseason wasn't easy to digest for Green, but the news of free agent Kevin Durant joining the team changed the scope of the next season, allowing the mercurial forward to see ahead and not dwell on his past antics.

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“It ate away at me for a while, and then I think on July 4… It’s like, ‘Man, this sucks.' And then I got a call from [Kevin Durant’s manager] Charlie Bell saying, ‘Let’s go win some championships,' he told Adrian Wojnarowski at The Vertical podcast.

“And I said, ‘Oh, all right, there goes those feelings. We got Kevin Durant out of the deal, I’ll be just fine.' You know, it ate away at me until about then. And then it was like a silver lining. Well, would have been great to win this championship, but the possibly of Kevin Durant and how many more championships we can win? We’ll be fine.”

While Durant's move to the Bay Area was also the reason half the Warriors roster was torn apart, it does make a pretty good consolation prize for a team that came one game shy of ultimate NBA glory.