What should have been a clean, calming win for the Golden State Warriors turned into another Draymond Green headline. This time centered on the bench, not the box score.
During Golden State’s 120–97 victory over the Orlando Magic at Chase Center on Monday, Green and head coach Steve Kerr got into a heated exchange during an early third-quarter timeout with the Warriors trailing 71–66.
Oh my: Draymond Green storms into the locker room after a huge argument with Steve Kerr.
What is going on?!?pic.twitter.com/hzILqW1HNu
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) December 23, 2025
Kerr said the timeout was about focus as much as anything.
“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. “We had it out a little bit and he made his decision to go back to the locker room to cool off. That’s all I’m going to say about it. Everything is private.”
Green then stood up and walked down the tunnel on his own, spending the final 8:31 of the third quarter in the locker room. He eventually returned to the bench before the fourth quarter, but he did not remove his warmups and never checked back into the game.
Kerr was blunt about the decision to keep him seated once he came back:
“No. He wasn’t going back in. No. He left. He went back to the locker room. We moved forward and the guys played great.”
Steve Kerr said Draymond Green chose to go to the locker room after the two had a heated argument during an early third quarter timeout. He wasn’t sent there. Green returned to bench for fourth quarter but Kerr said he wouldn’t have gone back to Green.
Full soundbite pic.twitter.com/SPZvuqteIB
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) December 23, 2025
Green didn’t deny the temperature of the moment. He framed the exit as self-control rather than abandonment.
“Tempers spilled over and I thought it was best that I get out of there,” Green said. “I don’t think it was a situation where it was going to get better. It was best to remove myself.”
Draymond Green on leaving the bench after his third quarter argument with Steve Kerr: “Tempers spilled over and I just thought it was best that I get out of there.” pic.twitter.com/NkR1NxXU2E
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) December 23, 2025
The tension didn’t derail the Warriors, if anything, it coincided with their best stretch in weeks. Stephen Curry scored 15 of his 26 points in a perfect-shooting third quarter, and Golden State blew the game open with a dominant second half.
Yet the argument hit because it’s part of a broader storyline: this was the second straight game in which Green departed prematurely. Two nights earlier, he was ejected after playing only eight minutes against Phoenix.
There’s also a basketball root to the frustration. Green has been under scrutiny for turnovers, and Kerr has been drilling the team on ball security. Green pushed back on the idea that his play was the issue on this particular night:
“I’m not frustrated at all. I had one turnover today… I had one turnover in my minutes. I essentially ran our offense.
Stephen Curry, meanwhile, tried to re-center the story on winning rather than dysfunction.
“The questions are a little bit more negative than they should be… downstairs right now, the DJ has a good playlist going, the guys are getting their work in and we’re having a good time because we’re winning,” he said
The Warriors will take the result, an emphatic win that evened their record and steadied the mood. But the conclusive takeaway is unavoidable: the relationship between Kerr and Green is still strong enough to survive a public blowup, yet volatile enough that one argument can send a core veteran to the locker room and effectively end his night. Kerr called it “unfortunate,” while stressing continuity:
“We need Draymond… He’s a champion. We’ve been together for a long time.”
In Golden State, that’s the uneasy balance—championship familiarity, real frustration, and a team trying to win through both.
