Steve Kerr explains what led to viral Draymond Green argument – NBC Sports Bay Area & California

After over a decade together as player and coach on the Warriors, Draymond Green and Steve Kerr are no stranger to their share of verbal disputes.

But after an in-game incident on Dec. 22 between the pair ended with Green in the locker room and online video of the spat garnering countless views, Kerr shouldered the blame for what, to many, felt like a different argument from the rest.

While both sides have moved on amicably from the situation, the Warriors coach on Tuesday explained what led to the heated interaction during an appearance on the “Tom Tolbert Show.”

“First of all, it was a misunderstanding,” Kerr told Tolbert. “Draymond was talking to the refs, and I had called a timeout because I thought we lost our focus. And I wasn’t mad at him, but he was talking to the ref for a long time, and then I see five of our players over there trying to bring him back and he had been ejected the night before. So I started yelling his name, ‘Draymond! Draymond!’ Basically just telling him to, asking him to get to the huddle.

“He thought I was yelling at him because of a turnover he had just made, and so he says something snarky, I say something back snarky, and next thing you know, we’re yelling at each other. We’re at each other’s throats, and then it all comes to bear. But I should have been calmer at that time. Like, I know Draymond so well and there’s always a buildup to these things, and he’s such an emotional player and passionate player and he had been frustrated for a couple of days, and I recognized that, but I needed to recognize it and do something about it in the huddle.

“I needed to be the the the calming force, and so we went back and forth and I regretted not being the calming calming one in that conversation.”