Green accountable for ejection: 'Can't happen'

Draymond Green shouldered the blame for his early ejection in the Golden State Warriors' 101-93 win over the Orlando Magic on Wednesday.

"It just can't happen," the Warriors forward said on his podcast, "The Draymond Green Show" on Thursday. "I said what I said. I deserved to get kicked out at that point.

"And what I said, if I'm all the way honest with y'all, I kind of was trying to turn my body and angle and go to the bench, but I said what I said a little too soon before angling my body to the bench. But, yeah, it just can't happen. ... We need to win games."

Green didn't elaborate on what he said that earned him his fourth ejection of the season fewer than four minutes into Wednesday's contest, though head coach Steve Kerr told reporters after the win that Green "deserved" to be tossed. The 34-year-old picked up two quick technical fouls for using "egregious profane language" toward referee Ray Acosta, crew chief Mitchell Ervin told Jason Beede of the Orlando Sentinel.

It was Green's 19th career ejection and the first since returning from a suspension for striking Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nurkic in the face. Green ended up missing 16 games over a month, during which he said he sought out counseling following a string of on-court incidents. He also received a separate five-game suspension in November for putting Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert in a headlock during an altercation between both teams.

"Like I said, not going to overreact like, 'Oh man!'" Green said. "Stuff is never as good as it seems, it's never as bad as it seems. I know where I am, I understand what I'm doing moving forward, and my position is just to make sure that that's the exception and not the rule."