Update: Video leaked of Draymond Green attacking Jordan Poole, and it looks terrible

Turning point for the team

I’m not going to write something long or deep about this. You can all see the video for yourselves.

philip lewis @Phil_Lewis_

TMZ obtained the video of the altercation between Draymond Green and Jordan Poole at practice tmz.com/videos/2022-10…

I think it looks terrible and it feels like a turning point in how I and many Warriors fans feel about Draymond Green. And it certainly will add uncertainty to the team’s willingness to re-sign Draymond. It forces everyone who supported Draymond (or tolerated him) to consider whether it’s time to move on.

In the short term, Draymond and Jordan Poole have to find a way to have a working relationship for the start of the season. The team will have to discipline Draymond in a way that the players accept as just.

Fights happen all the time in sports practices, most of which we don’t hear about. Michael Jordan famously punched Steve Kerr in practice and they seemed to bond around that, and it’s a big joke nowadays. Brothers brawl and make up. So yes, there’s a chance that this will end with Draymond and Poole in an even stronger relationship. You could easily see the team moving past this.

But you can also easily see this could end up in a “him or me” situation from Poole, or in a fracture of the team culture depending on how it’s handled by management and by Steph. And whether or not anyone gives such an ultimatum, we all know the choice of Poole or Green or both has been hanging over this season.

Yes, the Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins situations complicate the calculations. But given that Poole and Green were subbed for each other offense-for-defense down the stretch in Finals Game 4, given that they both are the Loud-mouth Annoying Person…

In the press conference, Steph defended Poole completely and then he said:

There’s nothing that warranted the situation yesterday. I’ll make that clear. And it’s also something that we feel like will not derail our season and what we’re trying to build. And that’s with Draymond as a part of that.

He added:

"Everything is important, how we handle this situation is important," Curry said. "How Draymond responds to the space that he needs to come back with the right frame of mind on doing the work, coming with the right energy, making it about the team, like all those things are important."

Steph has a talent for making you feel like he’s sharing with you while saying nothing at all. In this case, I can’t help reading into his words that Draymond is going to need to make some bigger, real changes to be able to remain part of the team going forward.

Last note. I have the feeling there will be echoes from this event in the team for a while. I am guessing not all the players (and maybe even not all of management) saw the video before today and even those who were there probably didn’t get a good view of it to see how serious it was. Everyone’s feelings could be very different today than they were yesterday…