I suppose you can’t blame Draymond Green for continuing to talk about his landing a haymaker on teammate Jordan Poole prior to the start of the season. He’s a big personality. He’s open with the media, which, in turn, is going to milk him for all the content he’s willing to offer. He gets asked the questions, and he answers them.
Still, I keep thinking about Poole and him having to continually listen to Green talk about an incident that happened over three months ago. Poole was quick in addressing it, and quick to move on, at least publicly. On Oct. 16, he offered the following statement on the matter:
“[Draymond] apologized and [was] professional,” Poole told reporters. “We plan on handling ourselves that way. We’re here to play basketball and everybody on our team and in the locker room knows what it takes to win a championship, and we’re going to do that on the court. … That’s really all I have to say on the matter. We’re here to win a championship and keep hanging banners.”
Meanwhile, Draymond is still being asked about it and still not shying away from discussing it in depth. He could say he is done talking about it, which would probably be better for Poole and the Warriors as a whole. But he doesn’t. The most recent example came in an interview with Taylor Rooks, who asked Green if he and Poole have put the incident behind them and whether their relationship had changed.
After a long, dramatic pause worthy of Oscar consideration, Green talked about how he and Poole are still locker neighbors and still ride the same buses, which isn’t really saying anything; they are on the same team, after all. Then he said it: “Did [the punch] change our relationship? Absolutely,” Green said. “That’s still a work in progress. I’ll always continue to be willing to do that work because I was wrong.”
From there you can watch the rest of Green’s response after another drawn-out, dramatic pause.
So listen, Green is a smart, reflective guy. It’s not hard to believe that he is genuinely considering his words carefully here and measuring his response and tone. It just makes me kind of chuckle how deep he’s making this. He socked a teammate. It was another example of his being largely unable to control his emotions, just like when he blew up on Kevin Durant, or gave LeBron James the jab that likely cost the Warriors a championship. Let’s not put too much stock in how remorseful and thoughtful Green has been in the aftermath. He did it. And it might still be screwing up the Warriors’ season behind closed doors.
Read between the lines here, and it sure doesn’t sound like Poole wants anything to do with Green. That kind of tension, even if unspoken, can be hard to completely push aside in a locker room. Having no knowledge of the inner workings of Golden State’s locker room dynamics, it seems like there’s enough stability and veteran equity in that organization, starting with Stephen Curry, Green, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala and Kevin Looney, that this is unlikely to still be a major issue.
But Green not letting it die in the media is not allowing for this incident to truly be behind them. It’s keeping it alive. Green isn’t going to cut it off. He is a podcaster. A personality. He’s going to kill on TV when he retires. He’s one of the most honest athletes you will ever meet, for better or worse, equally willing to promote his many strengths as he is his few flaws. That’s respectable. Even enjoyable. But how much discussion is enough?
