Inside the ugly split between Jonathan Kuminga and the Warriors - ESPN

THE MOST TENSE flare-up in what team sources otherwise described as a relatively cordial cold war between Jonathan Kuminga and Steve Kerr came on the afternoon of Dec. 10.

The Golden State Warriors had been eliminated from the NBA Cup two weeks earlier, giving them a rare break in the schedule. They'd won in Chicago the previous Sunday night and didn't play again until Friday.

Kuminga was prepared for the conversation. He knew management wanted to ding him for missing a team-requested event and alert him that someone around him was taking too much food from the family room. The gripes between player and organization, as multiple sources said, had become «petty» in the fifth year of a relationship many believed should've ended years before.

Kerr never had much success reaching Kuminga on a deeper level, typically one of his coaching superpowers. He'd given him handwritten notes, sent long text messages, tried to connect. But Kuminga rarely reciprocated. Kuminga normally responded dispassionately and sporadically.

In ESPN's several conversations with Kuminga over the past five years, it became increasingly clear that he viewed Kerr as the figure most responsible for holding back his career, long defined not by progression but rather inconsistency, inexplicable DNPs and tension.

«Go ask the man himself,» he'd say with an eye roll after a few of those no-minute or low-minute nights.

Organizational dynamics loomed above, forcing these two into an uncomfortable and drawn-out professional partnership, but Kuminga knew who controlled strategy and rotation.

Inside Kerr's office that afternoon, exasperation boiled over. The discussion went from small picture to bigger picture. Frustrations were let out on both sides — Kerr voicing