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Steve Kerr on Draymond Green’s suspension: “The suspension makes sense to me”

LOS ANGELES — This feels different.

It’s not just outside observers who think Draymond Green’s three ejections and two suspensions in 23 games this season — not to mention punching teammate Jordan Poole before last season — is different than the edgy antics Green got in trouble for during the Warriors’ peak title runs.

Steve Kerr feels that way. The Warriors coach also feels the NBA’s indefinite suspension of Green for clubbing the Suns’ Jusuf Nurkic in the head was justified.

“I think the suspension makes sense,” Kerr said in his first public comments on Green’s suspension. To me this is about more than basketball — it’s about helping Draymond. I think it’s an opportunity for Draymond to step away and to make a change in his approach and his life and that’s not an easy thing to do. That’s not something you say, ‘Okay, we’re gonna do five games, and then he’s gonna be fine…’

“That’s not the answer to pick a number, the answer is to help Draymond. Give him the help he needs. Give him an opportunity to make a change that will not only help him, help our team, but help him for the rest of his life. It’s not just about, you know, an outburst on the court. This is about his life.”

This current suspension is Green’s sixth in his career, with 20 career ejections (second all-time to Rasheed Wallace). This feels different to Kerr. He sees a qualitative difference between what Green has done in the past couple of years and the ejections of five or seven years ago.

“This is about someone who I believe in, someone who I have known for a decade, who I love for his loyalty, his commitment, his passion, his love for his teammates, his friends, his family — trying to help that guy.

“Because the one who grabbed Rudy [Gobert] and choked Rudy, the one who took a wild flail at Jusuf, the one who punched Jordan last year. That’s that’s the guy who has to change. And he knows that.

“Everything before that, over a decade of play, what are we really talking about, right? We’re talking about, you know, getting ejected for yelling at the ref or throwing a ball. But looking at the past year and what’s happened, it’s clear, he needs the opportunity to change and that’s what an indefinite suspension gives him the opportunity for.”

Kerr said that his role, and the role of the Golden State organization right now, is to support Green toward that change. Under the terms of the suspension (without pay, he loses $154,000 for each game missed), Green can be around the team and the practice facility. There are plans with the training staff to make sure Green stays in shape during this absence.

How long an absence? Nobody knows.

The “indefinite suspension” allows the NBA to kick the pushback to any length suspension down the line. In 10 games or so (which is what most observers expect, him returning in the first weeks of January), Green can step in front of the cameras and talk about his journey of reflection, how he learned things and believes he has changed and will not have these outbursts again. It’s something he and the league can sell.

That doesn’t mean it’s not true, but this makes better public relations than saying, “he gets 10 games and can come back.”

Kerr also was animated and angry at the comments in some corners of the media suggesting Green’s outburst somehow reflected poorly on the leadership of Stephen Curry. That should be obvious. If not for Curry and the Warriors ecosystem, we would have had this conversation about Green much earlier in his career.

Kerr wants that career to end more gracefully than the path it has been on recently.

“The whole key for me is what this can do for his life long term,” Kerr said. “I want him to be happy. I want him to reap the rewards of an incredible career and legacy. And I want him to finish that career in a really wonderful, dignified manner.”