November 12, 2018
On-court and Locker-Room Confrontation: Clippers 2018
On Nov. 12, 2018, late in regulation of the Golden State Warriors at Los Angeles Clippers game, Draymond Green retained the ball on a late possession, turned it over, and then engaged in a heated exchange with Kevin Durant on the bench that continued into the locker room; reporting says Green challenged Durant about free agency and used profanity, an episode later tied to Durant's decision to leave Golden State [1][4][6].
Quick Facts
What Happened
On November 12, 2018, in a road game at the Los Angeles Clippers, the Golden State Warriors executed a late-possession sequence in regulation that ended with Draymond Green keeping the ball and losing control instead of passing to Kevin Durant; the contest went to overtime and the Warriors lost the game [1][4]. After the play, Durant and Green exchanged heated words on the bench; multiple outlets reported the exchange continued into the locker room, where sources said Green challenged Durant about Durant's impending free agency and used an expletive multiple times [1][4][6]. Marcus Thompson of The Athletic and subsequent reporting relayed that Green called Durant a "b----" multiple times during the argument, and teammates reacted strongly, with at least one unnamed player saying, "With what was said, there is already no way Durant is coming back" [4][6]. Kevin Durant provided a restrained public comment two days later—"I’m gonna keep that in-house. That’s what we do here. What happened, happened. We’re trying to move on — just trying to play basketball."—as media coverage and social-media clips (including a circulated fan lip-read) amplified the incident [1][7]. The episode was characterized by contemporaneous reporters as one of the fiercest locker-room scenes of that Warriors era and immediately drew organizational attention and discipline [1][4][6].
What They Said
“I’m gonna keep that in-house. That’s what we do here. What happened, happened. We’re trying to move on — just trying to play basketball.”
“With what was said, there is already no way Durant is coming back.”
“Green called Durant a 'b----' multiple times during their argument on Monday.”
Why It Matters
This confrontation exposed a fracture between two high-profile teammates during a sensitive pre-free-agency period, with reporting tying the exchange directly to questions about Durant’s commitment to the Warriors and locker-room trust [1][4][6]. The incident converted a single on-court tactical dispute into a personnel and relational problem by introducing a direct challenge to Durant’s future and by provoking teammates to publicly speculate about roster continuity; that public linkage later became part of Durant’s stated reasoning for leaving Golden State [2].
What Happened Next
Immediate consequences included intense media scrutiny, social-media circulation of clips and lip-reads, and internal team investigation that culminated in formal discipline for Draymond Green the next day [1][4][6]. Kevin Durant limited his public remarks to protecting internal team matters, while teammates and media debated whether the exchange had irreparably damaged relationships; the incident remained a recurring point of discussion in coverage of Durant’s eventual free agency decision in 2019 [1][2][4].