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Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green has butted heads with plenty of players throughout his seven seasons in the league, but only one other has been more memorable than his November spat with Kevin Durant. Only three years ago, it was Green going back and forth with head coach Steve Kerr at halftime of a February game against the Oklahoma City Thunder — one that inspired one of his best ever performances after a bombastic altercation in the visitors' locker room.
Kerr recalls his relationship with Green over the years and how those moments of butting heads have eventually evolved into an intrinsic connection between the coach on the floor and the one on the sidelines.
“Over the years, we've had some knockdown, drag-out near fights because he's got a brilliant basketball mind, and he doesn't always agree with something I've said,” Kerr told Logan Murdock of NBC Sports Bay Area.
“They were important. He needed to know that I wasn't afraid to coach him, and I needed to know that he would respond to me, and after every argument and after every fight we'd get into, there was always a mutual respect and a sort of meeting of the minds and we'd figure it out, and it works.”
After being together for five seasons, Kerr is no longer a coach getting his feet wet in the league, and Green isn't merely a role player that was just promoted to starter — and now the two don't need the same type of fiery outbursts to come to an agreement.
“I don't think we've got into a single screaming match this year. It's got to be a record,” said Kerr jokingly. “We've become collaborators more than before. We used to butt heads. It was productive but now we collaborate.”
Kerr ultimately maintained their confrontations were necessary. The honesty was necessary and the two challenging each other was also necessary.
“The best coaches were the ones who coached and weren't afraid to rub people the wrong way as long as it wasn't personal,” Kerr said. “Phil and Pop were the best at it, and the way you have to do it is with respect. As long as you treat someone with respect, you can go at them and challenge them, and they may not agree with you, but if you treated them with respect, then you can move forward, and that's the foundation I have with Draymond.”
Some might call it dysfunctional or atypical, but the man at the helm has made it work with his all-around catalyst — and now sitting four games away from a third straight title, there's little debate to whether their methods work or not.
