During a Golden State Warriors preseason practice on October 5, 2022, veteran power forward Draymond Green threw a punch at shooting guard Jordan Poole, who was then about to start his fourth season in the NBA, all with the Warriors. The punch, as a video of the incident revealed, came after the two exchanged heated words and Green shoved Poole backward. Green then connected with a right hand to Poole’s face sending the younger player sprawling into a wall.
Poole appeared uninjured by the blow, but the incident reverberated through the Warriors’ 2022-2023 season. The Warriors were defending NBA champions heading into the season, coming off their six-game defeat of the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals less than four full months earlier.
With the Green-Poole incident casting a shadow over their season, the Warriors finished that campaign at a mediocre 44-38 â a decline of nine regular season wins from the previous season â and after placing sixth in the Western Conference were eliminated in the conference semifinals by the Los Angeles Lakers.
Green Reflects on Poole Punch 2 Years Later
Green apologized to Poole and to the team two days later, then announced that he would “stay away” from the team for some period of time and “continue to do work on myself.”
Green has addressed the incident publicly several times since, but last week on the Two Cents podcast hosted by former NBA 14-year veteran Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway, Green finally summed up what the incident meant to his life more than two years later, calling the confrontation with Poole one of his “biggest failures.”
âOne of my biggest failures as a vet was what happened with Jordan Poole. It took me to go through that failure with Jordan Poole, who was someone that came in and chose his locker to be next to me because he wanted to learn from me,” Green reflected. “[He] was someone that I would spend time with and that I would pour into, and I ****** it all up.â
Green added that the punching incident made him feel “miserably” but also, “it taught me a ton.”
“It showed me how to be a better vet for Jonathan Kuminga, how to be a better vet for Moses Moody,” Green went on. “But I had to go through that in order to learn. It sucked. But being that vet now and just wanting to pour into these guys, I think the most important thing for me is learning how to. With Poole, I wanted to pour into him as well and I did pour into him but the how-to I didnât necessarily know.”
Poole Was Later Traded Away
The 13-year veteran and member of all four Warriors championship teams starting with the 2014-2015 season said that “I know not to get close to that place,” with the younger players on the team today.
When the incident occurred, Green was 32 years old and Poole was just 23. Poole was drafted by the Warriors in the first round, 28th overall, in 2019 out of the University of Michigan. Green was taken by Golden State in the second round, 35th overall, in 2012 out of Michigan State â the arch-rival of Poole’s alma mater.
In June of 2023, the Warriors traded Poole to the Washington Wizards in a package that brought veteran guard Chris Paul to Golden State.
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