- Listen to the entire exclusive Draymond Green interview on Dubs Talk tomorrow at 7 a.m. or catch the show at 5:30 p.m. before "Warriors Pregame Live."
Everyone remembers Draymond Green being unceremoniously tossed after back-to-back technical fouls in the final seconds of a heartbreaking Warriors loss to the Charlotte Hornets.
After that Feb. 20 game, Warriors coach Steve Kerr and multiple players said Green owned up to his actions. He even said it the next day after practice. However, an unlikely voice called out Green in the locker room following his ejection and put him in place.
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It was Klay Thompson.
" 'You got to be better than that,' '' Green recalls Thompson telling him in an exclusive interview on the Dubs Talk podcast. " 'You let the team down, you let the guys down. These guys played really hard to win that game. You let the guys down. That's not acceptable.' "
Green didn't fight back at Thompson's words. For one, he knew they were true. And two, just 24 hours before that, Green got after Thompson for his behavior following another gut-wrenching loss to Orlando, where the Magic went on a 15-2 run and outscored the Warriors 18-9 in the final minutes.
That back-to-back might go down as the Warriors' two worst losses this season.
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When Green entered the locker room following the Warriors' 124-120 loss, he saw Thompson sitting facing his locker -- his back toward the rest of the room -- eating a snack and bopping his head to music.
"I went crazy," Green said. "I was like, 'Bro what are you doing? We just lost and you're in here bopping your head, your back turned, you ain't gonna say nothing to nobody when we walk in the locker room? You just gonna sit there? You not gonna say nothing to nobody?' He was furious. He was like, 'Oh, my fault bro. Good game.' And he left the locker room. He was furious, I mean furious."
Thompson clearly remembered that conversation the next day when he spoke to Green about his ejection.
"The team huddled up and he said, 'Dray, you got at me the other day about not being on the bench and not being a supporter, and that was BS,'" Green said. " 'That was BS, and you got to be better than that.' "
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While it was a fiery exchange in the moment, it was just the latest example of both players trying to hold each other -- and the rest of the team -- accountable.
Green and Thompson have been doing it for years. Holding each other accountable at the superstar level was one of the main catalysts of their dynastic run.
"That's a two-way street," Green said. "You don't win three championships, go to five straight Finals and experience the success we've experienced together if you can't hold each other accountable.”
But now, with the Warriors just one game above .500 and Thompson on the bench, the tone has changed. There is more urgency to get things right and let people know when they are in the wrong, and the superstars are no exception. Holding each other accountable arguably is even more important now in order for Green, Thompson and Steph Curry to get back to the level they are accustomed to -- playing for championships.