Draymond Green publicly apologized for his physicality against Jordan Poole on Thursday. The 32-year-old met with media members on Saturday morning in the Bay Area, admitting his fault and recognizing how the video negatively affected all parties involved.
“No. 1, I was wrong for my actions that took place on Wednesday. For that I have apologized to my team. I have apologized to Jordan,” Green said during a news conference that lasted under an hour. “I wanted to take that a step further. With the event yesterday with the video leaking, there is a huge embarrassment that comes with that, not only for myself but the embarrassment that Jordan has to deal with and that this team has to deal with and this organization has to deal with, but also Jordan’s family. His family saw that video, his mother, his father saw that video. Quite frankly, if my mother saw that video, I know how my mother would feel.”
“Hurt people hurt people…I hurt someone because I was in a place of hurt.”
– Draymond
(via @ChrisBHaynes ) pic.twitter.com/iHgXej8695— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) October 8, 2022
The video, which leaked to TMZ, exacerbated the situation as the closed practice video showed the degree of discontent between the two athletes. Green called the video leak “bullsh*t.”
Warriors coach Steve Kerr added his opinion expressing concern over the video leak as well.
Kerr challenged the entire organization to be better regarding leaks.
“I’ve been in this league for 30-plus years, I’ve seen all kinds of crazy stuff,” Kerr said. “When things are kept internally it’s really almost easy to handle, it’s just so much cleaner and smoother and you can move forward. As soon as things are leaked now all hell breaks loose and that affects every single player we’re having to answer all of these questions and it puts us in a very difficult spot, everybody in a very difficult spot.
“I watched the video 15 times, maybe more. Because when I watch the video I’m looking at the video and I’m like: ‘Yo, this looks awful. This looks even worse than I thought it was, it’s pathetic.’ And then I had to take a step back to it and realize this video was actually released this way to look that way.”
Green is taking a few days away from the hardwood allowing the team to “heal” since the video has made the rounds. In the days leading up to the incident, Poole reportedly acted very cockily with his teammates, potentially gloating over a significant contract extension. It all bubbled over when Green apparently called Poole a b***h multiple times before Green’s eventual ambush.
“You know what it is, Draymond,” Poole allegedly said in a braggadocious fashion regarding his contract situation. Draymond clapped back, getting into Poole’s space, saying, “No I don’t know, what is it?”
Green then approached Poole, violating his personal space, and once he pushed Green off of him, Green Superman punched him for the culture.
Now Green’s culminating antagonistic personality towards his NBA opponents and the media is beginning to look like a more significant issue. The time away will be to evaluate his famous passion, which translates into anger.
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