Getty Jordan Poole of the Golden State Warriors.
The 2022-23 regular-season campaign for the Golden State Warriors was a rocky one. Golden State struggled to play consistent basketball throughout, landing them the sixth seed in the Western Conference and a date with the Sacramento Kings in the first round of the playoffs.
Their year got off to a rough start when video surfaced of star forward Draymond Green punching Jordan Poole in the face, during a preseason practice.
Green was recently a guest on the “#thisleague UNCUT” podcast hosted by Chris Haynes and Marc Stein, where he discussed the preseason punch.
Haynes took the opportunity to ask the former Defensive Player of the Year if the source of the leaked clip was ever revealed.
“No, not at all,” Green told the hosts on the April 11 episode. “I was never really given a concrete answer on how it came about. But anything else that gets investigated you get to concrete things, right? Like, this is what we got to in our investigation. That’s that and it doesn’t end until you reach a concrete place. That wasn’t the case with this investigation. Could it have been the case if I pressed the issue? Probably so. Probably we could have gotten all the way to the bottom of it if I pressed the issue or Rich Paul pressed the issue. We could have gotten all the way to the bottom of it I’m sure. But in hindsight and even looking at it now, I didn’t want to get to the bottom of it. I didn’t want to chase ‘Oh man, who leaked this?’ Is there a way for me to find out where this league came from? If I do find [out], what I’m going to do? Am I going to sue someone? No. If I find out the organization leaked it, am I going to sue the Golden State Warriors? Of course not.”
Source Blames Warriors’ Draymond Green for Jordan Poole’s Struggles
Some have pinpointed the altercation between Green and Poole as reasoning for the 23-year-old’s inconsistent play this season. One anonymous source, who spoke to Heavy Sports’ Sean Deveney, was one of those people.
“He has not been the guy they needed after he got the contract this summer,” he said of Poole. “He will give you 30 one night then go 5-for-20 the next. It is tough. The thing with Draymond in the offseason, obviously that hurt the chemistry of the team. But it looks like it put some pressure on Poole, too, that he has not responded to. He is a little better attacking the basket and being a playmaker, he has improved. But he just has not been right as a scorer and shooter and it is like he feels he needs to show he belongs on the same level as Steph (Curry) and Klay (Thompson)—he shoots and shoots and shoots, probably too much.”
Steve Kerr Praises Jordan Poole for Appearing in all Warriors’ Games
Despite being on the wrong end of the shot from Green, Poole appeared in all 82 of Golden State’s games this season. Head coach Steve Kerr recently shined some light on his remarkable achievement.
“It’s been a rough year in a lot of ways, and they should feel really proud for making it through and fighting through a lot of adversity to get here,” Kerr said via the NBA Interviews YouTube channel. “I also singled out Loon and JP for playing all 82. It’s so difficult to play 82 games in an NBA season with all the bumps and bruises and the various forms of adversity that hit you individually. So, for Jordan and Loon to be there for us every night was just hugely valuable.”