Kevin Durant clarified the comments he made about Draymond Green a few hours after the Warriors forward broke his silence since his indefinite suspension.
"Well you got to look at it from my perspective," Durant told reporters Monday after the Phoenix Suns' 138-111 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. "Before I had made those comments, they said Draymond was going to therapy. What am I supposed to think? They say someone's going to therapy, I hope he gets better from that and hope he learns from whatever he felt like he needed to learn from going to therapy. So that's all I heard. I'm glad he's back. I'm glad he can move past that.
"Draymond is an incredible teammate. He got his times where he loses his temper, but everybody has those times. I'm sure they're all happy to have him back. But I didn't mean no ill will about what I said. I know some people look at me as this malicious, snake, passive aggressive -- I know how people feel about me so sometimes when I say s--t, I don't mean no harm by anybody. I didn't mean to disrespect him or his family if he felt that way. I'm just glad he's back on the court."
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After Green was ejected from Golden State's Dec. 12 loss to Durant's Suns for striking Jusuf Nurkić in the face, Durant weighed in on the "insane" incident and expressed his concerns for Green.
"Yeah, that was insane to see," Durant said. "Glad Nurk is all right. Never seen that before on the basketball court in an NBA game.
Golden State Warriors
"I hope Draymond gets the help that he needs. There's been incident after incident. I know Draymond, and … he hasn't been that way when I was around him and coming into the league. So, hopefully he gets the help he needs, and get back on the court and put all this stuff behind him."
When Green first heard those comments, he admitted on his podcast Monday that it "really pissed" him off. But after taking a moment to really reflect on Durant's words, he had a different reaction.
"So then I went back to Kevin Durant's statement and he said 'he was not like that.' So as I sat with myself, I said, 'I think it's time the world gets to know me. Who I am,'" Green said. "And if I can look at Kevin's statement the right way with the right mindset through the right lens, he's acknowledging essentially what I want the world to know about me.
"And then he spoke about help. And I'm like, 'How is he going to say I need help?' And when I went back through it with another lens I was like, 'Maybe you shouldn't hear help so negatively.' Maybe you're listening to the word 'help' with the same mindset that the word help meant when you were 15 years old. So maybe you shouldn't hear that so negatively and maybe he's not saying it 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.
"And it was a very proud moment for me. Because I said you're ready for growth. That's a step in the right direction."
About a week after the incident with Nurkić, The Athletic's Shams Charnia reported, citing sources, that Green started counseling. Green said on his podcast that he did turn to people he trusted and began to "lay out a plan" to get better before returning to the court.
The NBA reinstated Green on Saturday after the four-time NBA champion served a 12-game suspension, and he reportedly is expected to return to the court in the next week or two.
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