The Golden State Warriors are continuing to deal with fallout from Draymond Green’s decision to brutally punch Jordan Poole.
Earlier this week, head coach Steve Kerr announced that Green would not be suspended for his actions.
Some took that to be confirmation of a popular theory floating around – that altercations like the one that occurred between Green and Poole actually happen all the time in NBA locker rooms.
In a recent conversation with ESPN, former Warrior and current Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant set the record straight.
“I heard people say that that happens a lot in the NBA,” Durant said during the interview.
“I had never seen nothing like that before. But what me and Draymond did a few years back, that s*** happens all the time. So it’s easy to get through something like that, but I don’t know what this situation is like.”
This flies directly in the face of the narrative that fights like this are commonplace. As the video suggested after the fact, Green’s actions towards Poole were particularly brutal.
That’s why there is presently so much chatter about their relationship being broken beyond repair. It also speaks to players hinting towards a rift in the locker room.
“It’s rare,” Durant continued. “It’s rare. I’ve been in the league 16 years, and I’ve never seen that until the other day on camera. You hear about it with MJ and you hear about it with Bobby Portis, but there’s nothing that’s happening every year. It’s very rare that something like that happens.”
All that being said, Durant still believes the Warriors have what it takes to overcome this matter.
“I think the best thing about the Warriors is their mantra’s been ‘Strength in Numbers’ that whole time,” Durant noted.
“And it’s always been a collaborative effort with everybody there. So Steph [Curry] is not alone in trying to gather everybody. I’m sure Andre [Iguodala] is helping him. I’m sure [Kevon Looney] is helping him. I’m sure Bob [Myers] and Shaun [Livingston] and Klay [Thompson] and just the guys that have been there are helping him as well.”
If Durant is wrong, and should Golden State not be able to overcome this, a 3-team NBA trade has been floated that could solve a lot of their problems.
— Game 7 (@game7__) October 13, 2022
The next few weeks promise to be fascinating. If the Warriors can move past what happened, them repeating in 2022-23 is not out of the question.
Should they stumble early, don’t be surprised if significant changes end up getting made to the roster.
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A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
