Draymond Green aims to cut antics - 'Cost my team enough' - ESPN

SAN FRANCISCO — As Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr welcomed Draymond Green back to practice from his indefinite suspension, teammate Brandin Podziemski started a round of applause.

But Green didn't think he deserved that.

«I've cost my team enough. I've cost this organization enough,» Green said in a news conference Tuesday.

Green spent the past 3½ weeks in counseling, part of the requirements the NBA set for Green to return after striking Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nurkic on Dec. 12.

During his first session, his therapist laid out the bottom line clearly and simply: Don't do these sessions to check a requirement box, or you will be wasting everyone's time.

Green said there was a focus on figuring out what kind of help he truly needed to best work through what was causing his aggressive outbursts on the court. Because of that, he leaned into the process.

«It was very easy to open myself up [to therapy] from a personal standpoint because I needed to gather myself, to recenter myself and to recalibrate,» Green said. «It's hard to see things when you're just in it… it's hard to see what's necessary to see.»

He didn't touch a basketball for the first 10 days of his suspension.

During a call with his agent, Rich Paul, Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy and trainer Rick Celebrini, Green tensed up when they mentioned a targeted return date.

«Basketball was the least important thing to me. I needed a break,» Green said. «One of the best things for me was not waking up the next day like, all right, I've got to get this work in.»

When Green did feel ready to start working out again, that in itself felt like therapy, he said.

Green was adamant his self-reflection this time around wasn't because the league stepped in