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Former Golden State Warriors general manager Bob Myers had a startling revelation about who leaked the infamous Draymond Green–Jordan Poole punching video to TMZ.
“No [we didn’t find out who leaked],” Myers said on JJ Redick’s “The Old Man & The Three” podcast. “I think the best I can answer that is, we couldn’t pinpoint anybody. It wasn’t like we found someone. We looked, we looked. We tried, a third party, but we couldn’t.”
Fresh off winning the 2021-22 NBA championship, the punching incident derailed their title defense. It fractured their chemistry which led to a second-round exit during last season’s playoffs.
Golden State coach Steve Kerr admitted the incident took a heavy toll.
“Anytime some trust is lost, then it makes the process much more difficult, and there was some trust lost,” Kerr said during his exit interview after the Los Angeles Lakers eliminated them in May. “That’s as blunt as I can be. We have to get back to what has made us really successful, which is a really trusting environment and a group that relies on one another and makes each other better.”
Draymond Green Doubted Warriors Return After Video Leak
Green thought he was done in the Bay Area following their early playoff exit last season for his role in the infamous video leak.
“What gave me doubt is that I didn’t know if I would have the opportunity to redeem myself,” Green told ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk in September. “Not [because] that thing necessarily happened. It’s that, do you have an opportunity to make it right, or is that just it? It doesn’t change what happened. It doesn’t change that I was at fault. But I’m a human being, and human beings do wrong.”
“But how do you stand when it goes wrong, when things ain’t on your side? When everybody’s against you, when the world is saying, ‘Oh man, now all of a sudden you’re not worth the money you make.’ Or, ‘You’re the cancer and you’re the problem’ four championships later.”
So the Warriors were forced to pick between Green and Poole, who signed a four-year, $140 million deal in the summer before the punching incident.
Poole was traded to the Washington Wizards last summer and has never been the same. The Warriors picked Green and rewarded him with a four-year, $100 million contract.
But troubles did not end there for the Warriors.
The Warriors are clinging to the 10th spot in the West after Green was suspended twice — first for putting Rudy Gobert in a chokehold and second for striking Jusuf Nurkic in the face — this season.
Green’s subsequent return from his second suspension has propelled the Warriors to get into the play-in picture after their continued struggles during his absence.
The Warriors are 24-13 since Green rejoined the lineup on January 15 following a 16-game absence, 12 of them due to suspension.
Draymond Green’s Relapse
Green showed restraint for most of his return from his second suspension of the season except for one game.
He relapsed and got ejected for arguing with officials during the Warriors’ 101-93 win on March 27.
“It just can’t happen,” Green said on “The Draymond Green Show” podcast afterward. “I said what I said. I deserved to be kicked out at that point. If I’m all the way honest with y’all, kind of was trying to turn my body and angle it to go to the bench, but I said what I said a little too soon before angling my body. … But, yeah, it just can’t happen.”
Green averaged 10.2 points, 7.4 rebounds, 5.8 assists and 2.8 steals in five games since the ejection as the Warriors won 4 of 5. The Warriors’ mercurial forward was a plus-32 during this stretch.
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