When Jordan Poole stepped onto the podium at San Francisco’s Chase Center over the weekend, it took hours to sign a $140 million contract extension, but he knew he had to deal with another issue first. I knew it wouldn’t.
“So I’ll start with regards to Draymond’s situation,” the Golden State Warriors guard told reporters. is going to play basketball and everyone in the locker room and everyone on our team knows what it takes to win a championship and is going to do it on the court. That’s really all it has to say.”
The statement was the beginning of a week-long story that began at the Warriors’ practice facility a few feet away from where Poole spoke. One of his pillars of Golden State’s multi-title run, Draymond Green punched Poole in the face during scrimmage with little to no taunt.The blow was captured on tape and later leaked TMZIt broke friendships and could have started the clock on Greene’s Bay Area exit.
The Warriors did not suspend Green for the incident. Instead, they issued an undisclosed fine and allowed him to return to practice last Thursday. organizations are dealing with skirmishes as they have done through nearly a decade of excellence. The core of Green, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson remains intact.
In the process of chasing four titles and six Finals appearances, the Warriors have frequently let players vent their disagreements without much punishment. Green lashed out at head coach Steve Kerr at halftime against the Thunder in the 2016 regular season, prompting police to consider entering the locker room. However, the forward did not miss time due to the incident. They stood by Green when Kevin Durant left the organization just months after Green called him abusive during the 2018 regular-season game against the Clippers.
That’s why pundits and players, including Bucks veterans, criticized Golden State’s lack of penalties last week. Bobby Portisreceived a team-issued eight-game suspension for punching a teammate while playing for the Bulls in 2017.
“None of this is comfortable,” Warriors general manager Bob Myers said on Sunday. It wasn’t as long as it was.The work has to move forward now.This is all we can do at the moment.The decision has been made and I think the players, the coaches and the organization have gone through it and I think we’ll be fine
Instead, the task of de-escalating tensions has been delegated to the players in the locker room. Among the key voices is center Kevon Looney, whom Kerr recently called the team’s “moral compass.” Drafted by the Warriors in 2015, Looney has attended all but one of Golden State’s finals, and has been a key part of three. He has a unique distinction as a player who has earned the respect of veteran leadership while also being young enough to relate to the younger players on the team. Also, like Poole, he’s from Milwaukee and will listen intently if you have any complaints about Poole.
“For [Poole] It’s hard because you can’t tell someone how to feel or tell anyone what to do in a situation like that,” Rooney told me recently. You just want to be there for them and let him vent to you and let him get his point across, basketball and off the court. And make sure you’re there for him.We won’t even talk about it.You just want to be friends.”
Although unconventional, it’s an approach Golden State coaches hope will work.
“I think the more time away from things, the better,” Kerr told me last week, just before Green played in the Warriors’ preseason finale. “We are going to discuss what needs to be done to move forward and we will do it. No, but we all have goals, individual goals and team goals, we all know what we need to do to reach them and that is our focus.
The problem is that some individual goals collided.When the Warriors called to his camp for training, some Key players wanted extension, including pools and greens. Poole is expected to reach an agreement before Monday’s rookie extension deadline, and eventually agreed to a new four-year contract over the weekend. Key to the 2022 title win His player Andrew Wiggins also signed his $109 million extension for four years.But with the Warriors’ tax bill rising to historic levels, current estimates put their salary at Nearly 500 million next season— Green is unlikely to sign a new deal. Even before the punch, the gulf between future and past was unignorable.
Most reports suggest that Greene’s attack on Poole was unrelated to his contract status and that he entered the facility in a bad mood. “The day it happened, I was in a very, very bad space mentally dealing with some things in my personal life,” Green said. He may not stay with Golden State beyond the season, and a player option awaits him this summer for the 2023-24 season.
Until then, Green must find a way to mend his relationship with the Warriors’ young core. When Janet Jackson stopped by Chase Center in 2019 for a tour, Green invited the youngsters to his suite. “That was my man,” second-year guard Moses Moody said last week. “You can go over there and talk to him, talk about anything, go to his house. So I feel like he has a really strong relationship with me. I don’t know about other people.” And I can’t speak for others, but for me, I don’t see how it could get any stronger.”
And when youngsters like James Wiseman struggled with injuries and inconsistencies, Green provided reassurance that everything would be fine. “But he just taught me that, and the ups and downs I’ve had, in terms of my first year experience,” Weisman told me last season. As a basketball player, mentally.Knowing the game, reading the game, everything.He taught me a lot. .”
However, it was with Poole that Greene was most closely associated with the young Koa. The duo have become close since the Warriors drafted Poole with his 28th pick in 2019. And when Poole struggled to find a foothold in the league while Curry and Thompson battled injuries, Green reassured him he would figure things out. He was happy to shelter me,” Poole told me last fall. “I want to say that Steph was injured and Klay was out. Of the Big Three, Draymond was the one I was closest to. And his locker was next to mine. So it’s small. I was asked to come to the room while I was traveling, and he was practically a newcomer, so we spent a lot of time together the first two years. ”
As Poole struggled in the G League, Green made a point of checking in on the young guard. . The exchange was so surprising that Shaw called his office at the Golden State front desk to express his concerns about this young security guard’s behavior. By the end of the evening, Chris Weems, then head coach of the Santa Cruz Warriors, received several calls and voicemails from a number he didn’t know. The sender has been identified. “What happened to JP?”
“It’s really a brother-brother relationship,” Poole told me last fall. And I was kind of like a little brother, he went to Michigan and I went to Michigan so he uses that card a little bit but we have similar backgrounds, same kind of I think it was the hunger, the same motives, and clearly an African-American man in today’s society. [When he gets] Any chance he really gives someone knowledge or gets someone into the game, he will.
But the punch split them up. After the incident, several within Poole’s circle were unwilling to sign an extension as it would be too difficult to repair the team’s dynamics. I approached him and asked him to sign off.
Over the weekend, Poole was asked if his brotherhood with Green was still going on. “If I said that, I meant it,” he replied. And when it comes to that court, we all have one common goal: get the job done and play as many matches as possible. and try again.”
“I didn’t handle it well,” Greene said when speaking to reporters, days after the punch. I failed as a leader and in turn led to this.So personally I have to take what comes with it.I have to deal with it and keep improving myself. Like I said, rebuild trust and relationships in this locker room because ultimately that’s what’s most important to me. To be able to compete at the absolute highest level knowing you have to compete to perform.And that goal remains the same.”
So far, the road to friendship has been slow. Green and Poole exchanged a brief hug before Friday’s preseason game. It wasn’t as affectionate.
But it wasn’t until Thursday morning, when Green returned to practice for the first time since the incident, that we got a glimpse of how the two men repaired the damage. There was tension around Green’s arrival and the uncertainty of whether Green and Poole would co-exist. I realized that I belonged. After a while, Green and Pool ran a pick-and-roll and were perfectly in sync without saying a word.
“That’s not what I think, it’s his teammate’s problem,” Myers said. “That’s not something I can answer. They can answer. And in time, the results will be there. I don’t have to sit here and explain the player’s situation.” So I want that question answered now, but that question should be answered during the season.”
The Warriors know they have the best chance of winning the title this season if they can get past this feud. But as much caution as there is optimism, as they begin their quest to win his fifth title in nine years.
“He has some work to do to win back trust from us,” Rooney said of Green.
