Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr is an unusually candid interview, not just for the NBA but for the sports world in general, and he lived up to that reputation yet again during a media session on Wednesday, December 24.
The Dubs are 15-15 heading into a Christmas Day game against the Dallas Mavericks at Chase Center in San Francisco and feeling their relative age after battling nearly half the season just to keep their collective head above water in the Western Conference.
“You know, we are no longer the [2017] Warriors, dominating the league,” Kerr said, per Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area. “We are a fading dynasty. We know that. Everyone knows that.”
Reality of Warriors’ Limitations May Have Contributed to Sideline Fight Between Steve Kerr, Draymond Green
GettyDraymond Green of the Golden State Warriors.
Kerr’s admission of where the Warriors are at as a team, and the very real knowledge of that throughout the organization, might explain some of the frustration that led to a sideline blowup between Kerr and volatile star Draymond Green against the Orlando Magic on Monday — the last time Golden State played a game.
Green and Kerr engaged in a shouting match on the bench during a third-quarter timeout, at which point Green left the court of his own accord and did not return to the game.
“We got into it obviously, and I took the timeout just because I thought we lost our focus there a little bit,” Kerr told reporters during a postgame press conference. “We had it out a little bit, and he made his decision to go back to the locker room to cool off, and that’s all I’m gonna say about it.”
Kerr added that even if Green had reemerged from the locker room, Kerr would not have allowed him to reenter the contest. Green also spoke to media members after the game.
“Tempers spilled over, and I just thought it was best that I get out of there,” Green explained. “Sometimes, you’re with people for a long time, there’s a level of comfort, and [expletive] happens.”
The Warriors don’t plan to punish Green for his outburst, and he will play against Dallas Thursday.
Aging Warriors’ Trio of Steph Curry, Draymond Green, Jimmy Butler Fighting for Playoff Life Midway Through Season
GettySteph Curry of the Golden State Warriors.
The Warriors won their fourth championship title in their sixth NBA Finals appearance under Kerr following the 2021-22 regular season, but lost in the second round the next postseason to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Golden State didn’t make the playoffs two years ago, but then found a resurgence after acquiring Jimmy Butler from the Miami Heat ahead of the trade deadline last February.
The Warriors were among the best teams down the stretch, qualified for a spot in the play-in tournament as the No. 7 seed, got into the playoffs and bested a young, physical Houston Rockets squad in a first-round slugfest.
But the war of attrition claimed Steph Curry via a hamstring strain in Game 1 of the Warriors’ second-round series against the Minnesota Timberwolves, which Golden State lost in five games.
The Dubs are currently the No. 8 seed in the West, a full 3.5 games behind the No. 6-seed Rockets, which is the cutoff for an automatic berth into the playoffs. The Warriors are just 3.5 games ahead of the Mavericks, who are in the 11th spot currently, which would leave them on the outside looking in at the play-in tournament were it to begin today.
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