Draymond Green, the star of the Golden State Warriors, expressed remorse on Thursday for his early ejection from Wednesday night’s victory against the Orlando Magic, less than four minutes into the game.

“It just can’t happen,” Green admitted on “The Draymond Green Show” podcast. “I said what I said. I deserved to be kicked out at that point. If I’m all the way honest with y’all, I was kind of trying to turn my body and angle it to go to the bench, but I said what I said a little too soon before angling my body. … But, yeah, it just can’t happen.”

Green’s ejection came after he was seen arguing with official Ray Acosta following his first personal foul. Later, when Stephen Curry received a shooting foul, Green approached Acosta and continued yelling at him, resulting in a technical foul. When Green persisted, Acosta issued another technical, forcing Green out of the game at the 8:24 mark of the first quarter.

This marked Green’s career-high fourth ejection of the season, and his second in the first quarter. According to ESPN Stats & Information, he is the first player to be ejected at least four times in a season since Kevin Durant in 2017-18.

It was also Green’s 19th regular-season ejection, the second most in NBA history over the past 25 seasons behind Rasheed Wallace (25).

“I’m not going to overreact, like ‘Oh man!'” Green said on his podcast. “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’s the exception and not the rule.”

Crew chief Mitchell Ervin stated to a pool reporter after the game that Green received the second technical foul because “after a prolonged diatribe, Green directed egregious profane vanguard towards a game official.” Ervin clarified that Green’s history “absolutely” did not impact the decision to issue two technical fouls.

Stephen Curry said Draymond Green’s ejection, which came at the 8:24 mark of the first quarter, “was a tough way to start the game.” Nathan Ray Seebeck/USA Today Sports

Green’s actions this season — including putting Minnesota Timberwolves forward Rudy Gobert in a headlock in November and hitting Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nurkic in the head in December — as well as several other incidents last season were taken into account for the two suspensions Green served this campaign.

Green was suspended five games for the Gobert incident and then missed 16 games as part of an indefinite suspension before returning in January.