Kevin Durant is worried about Draymond Green following his former Warriors teammate's latest on-court blow-up and suspension.
The Suns superstar, who didn't play in Tuesday's game against the Warriors because of a left ankle sprain, weighed in on the incident involving Green and Phoenix center Jusuf Nurkić, which resulted in an indefinite suspension for the Golden State veteran.
"Yeah, that was insane to see," Durant said Wednesday night. "Glad Nurk is all right. Never seen that before on the basketball court in an NBA game.
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"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."
Green was ejected in the third quarter of Golden State's 119-116 road loss to Phoenix after officials assessed him with a Flagrant 2 foul for swinging at Nurkić and striking him across the face during an inbounds play.
It marked the third time this season Green had been ejected from a game.
Golden State Warriors
Nurkić was asked about the incident after Tuesday's game, and expressed similar sentiments as Durant did one night later.
"What's going on with him? I don't know," Nurkić said. "That brother needs help. I'm glad he didn't try and choke me. But at the same time, it had nothing to do with basketball. I'm just out there trying to play basketball and they're out there swinging.
"I think we saw that often. I hope whatever he got in his life, it gets better."
Green is no stranger to on-court altercations, but there has been a concerning uptick in a short amount of time this season.
Of Golden State's 23 games, Green has played in 15 and been ejected from three, and then suspended from five and missed two because of injury and one for personal reasons.
Prior to the Nurkic incident, Green was ejected from the Warriors' Nov. 14 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves for putting Rudy Gobert in a chokehold after Klay Thompson and Jaden McDaniels got into a heated scuffle. That resulted in a five-game suspension for Green.
Green did say after Tuesday's loss that he apologized to Nurkić and was remorseful for his actions. But as one of the most important Warriors leaders, Green knows words only mean so much.
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