How intense Draymond-Kerr fight helped Looney come out of his shell originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
While Kevon Looney is far from the loudest voice in the Warriors’ locker room, he has become one of the team’s most respected leaders over the years.
The soft-spoken center was, to no one’s surprise, a quiet 19-year-old in his rookie NBA season of 2015-16, often keeping his thoughts and emotions to himself. Until an incident behind the scenes allowed him to break out of his shell.
Looney joined longtime teammate and Warriors forward Draymond Green on the latest episode of “The Draymond Green Show,” where the two recalled a fiery locker room incident involving Green and coach Steve Kerr during halftime of a Western Conference Finals game 2016 game against the Oklahoma City Thunder and how the altercation, and Looney’s response to it, allowed the big man to open up to his teammates.
“This guy (Looney) hadn’t said a word all year, and then me and Steve [Kerr] We get to work on it in the locker room and he’s sitting there laughing uncontrollably,” Green recalled.” And then he starts talking and then the reality is to see something like that, I personally, I feel like that’s the Milwaukee in him. It opened you up.”
“At that moment Steve wanted to kill me and then he realized I wanted to kill him.”
The passionate brawl in the Warriors’ locker room showed Looney how serious his new team was about winning, which he respected and valued.
“Coming in as a rookie, I was hurt to start the year, so I didn’t really get a chance to be with all of you, in the locker room,” Looney said. “I was recuperating in a different place, so it was a bit strange to be with you, and you were also a bit older. And we didn’t lose a game either, so I thought, OK, I don’t feel like my ease of being To myself, everything seemed all roses and moonshine. I won every game and when I saw something happen where the boys were really tested, I was reminded that my teams were growing up.
“People really want to win, the fight to win. And I see you all sitting together, it made me feel comfortable. I feel like I was with my guys, like ‘these are my kind of guys right here’. ..I felt really comfortable and came out of my shell a little bit.”
Because as serious as the incident seemed to those outside the Warriors’ locker room, Looney still can’t help but laugh at the scene that unfolded.
“That was one of the funniest things I’ve been a part of,” Looney added. ‘Sit next to it [Marreese] Speights and everyone trying to calm everyone down, I couldn’t help but laugh. It was a serious moment, but hearing from Klay [Thompson] Draymond says in the background [to] ‘relax’…that was one of the funniest things I’ve been a part of.”
The Warriors went on to defeat the Thunder after the locker room incident and advance to the NBA Finals, where they famously blew a 3–1 series lead to the Cleveland Cavaliers. However, six years and potentially countless heated exchanges later, Looney and Golden State would win three more championships, establishing themselves as one of the greatest dynasties in NBA history.
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