The Golden State Warriors are one of the NBA’s most popular teams, but not when it comes to the officials. The team is known for racking up technical fouls and ejections. In the past, many of the technical fouls assessed to the team were given to the starting center, Draymond Green. However, Kevin Durant may be ready to take over the title.
According to a December 5 report by Dead Spin , throughout his career, Kevin Durant had only been ejected from an NBA game two times, that is until this season. Over the course of the 2017 season, Durant has played 18 games with the Golden State Warriors and has been ejected from three of those games. The most recent ejection came on Monday night in the Warriors’ hard-fought win over the New Orleans Pelicans.
The ejection took place after Kevin Durant and New Orleans star DeMarcus Cousins got into a heated altercation on the court in the final minutes of the game. Both of the men were kicked off the court and out of the game, but Durant didn’t go easily. After the ejection, he continued to have words with Cousins, and security, as well as coaches, were forced to pull him away from the conflict, off the court, and back into the locker room.
Many Golden State Warriors and NBA fans are confused by Kevin Durant’s latest trend of losing his temper on the court. In the past, Durant never seemed to have a short fuse, but throughout the first few months of the 2017 season, he’s been getting into it with players and referees, earning him multiple technical fouls and now three ejections.
After the game, Kevin Durant spoke out about the ejection and raised some eyebrows with his comments to ESPN . The Golden State Warriors superstar revealed that he makes sure to only get ejected in the final minutes of game, because he doesn’t want to hurt his team by getting kicked off the court early on, therefore giving them less of a chance to win. However, some fans are calling Durant out, claiming that he may only be getting ejected to get media hype or keep the Warriors in the news with the Boston Celtics making headlines for their record, the Cleveland Cavaliers in the news for their winning streak, and the Houston Rockets sitting at No. 1 in the Western Conference.
“I thought he just threw us out pretty quick, to be honest,” Durant said after his third ejection. “We got in each other’s faces, but that’s just how it is, you know what I’m saying? It’s late in the game. Every time I get ejected I make sure it’s late in the game. I’m not messing up like that in the first or second quarter — make sure it’s late in the game if I want to do something.”
Both Cousins and Durant are ejected ? pic.twitter.com/spHpEHcr5l
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) December 5, 2017
Of course, Kevin Durant is not the only member of the Golden State Warriors booted from a game this season. Teammates Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and Shawn Livingston have also been ejected from games this season, with Livingston landing a one-game suspension for his interaction with a referee.
