Draymond Green and Jordan Poole found themselves at the center of controversy this week when the Golden State Warriors stars got into it at a team practice.
The part of the altercation that everyone is familiar with at this point is Green throwing an extremely brutal punch at Poole. It has been etched into people’s memories courtesy of the video that leaked out.
But what happened leading up to the punch? Why was Green so mad?
An answer has seemingly emerged.
Apparently, Poole has been using his looming big contract extension as a point of bragging around the Warriors’ facility. According to TMZ, “in the days leading up to the incident, Poole was carrying himself differently — in a cocky manner.”
That in turn created what has been described as “friction” between Poole and some of his teammates. Recent comments by Steve Kerr about some Golden State players picking on Poole would seemingly back that up.
“Our sources on site say Poole called several fouls during a scrimmage, and Draymond called him a ‘b***h’ multiple times as a result,” the TMZ report continued.
“Things escalated when Poole allegedly said, ‘You know what it is, Draymond.’ — seemingly bragging over the contract situation — and Draymond got in Poole’s face, allegedly saying, ‘No I don’t know, what is it?’”
Then came the punch – footage of which TMZ allegedly paid an insane amount of money for.
It’s hard to see how all parties involved move forward from here. If there had just been a fight and nothing leaked out, everyone could have moved on. Practice squabbles are not uncommon in the NBA.
But for it to become this sort of issue, with video evidence, it’s a problem. Similarly, it’s also an issue that multiple Warriors players have a clear beef with Poole. It helps that Stephen Curry isn’t one of them, but it also doesn’t completely fix things.
Even Tom Brady can’t be good at everything. https://t.co/FyOI7PhExN
— Game 7 (@game7__) October 8, 2022
It will be interesting to see where the Warriors go from here. One NBA team has clear interest in acquiring Poole should Golden State opt to go that route, but thus far the front office has resisted.
Obviously this isn’t the way the defending champs wanted to open their season.
That said, if anyone can get past it – it’s definitely the Warriors.
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A graduate from the University of Texas, Anthony Amador has been credentialed to cover the Houston Texans, Dallas Cowboys, San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks and high school games all over the Lone Star State. Currently, his primary beats are the NBA, MLB, NFL and UFC.
