Warriors star Draymond Green is fined but NOT suspended for sucker punching teammate Jordan Poole

Draymond Green has been fined for sucker punching his Golden State Warriors teammate Jordan Poole at a practice last week, but the polarizing forward has not been suspended by the team.

Green, who has been away from the team, will return to practice Thursday and play in a preseason exhibition for the defending NBA champs on Friday against the Denver Nuggets, Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Tuesday. The former NBA Defensive Player of the Year is also expected to be in uniform in Tuesday’s opener against the Los Angeles Lakers.

As Kerr explained Tuesday, Green and Poole have spoken since the former dropped the latter with a right hand last week, footage of which was leaked to TMZ on Friday.

Suspending green appears to have been an option for Kerr, who told reporters that ‘everything was on the table.’

Kerr pointed to his and general manager Bob Myers’ familiarity with the players to defend the team’s response to the situation, but did admit ‘any criticism that we face here is fair.’ ‘We feel like we have a great feel for our team,’ Kerr said. ‘We’ve got a lot of continuity on this team, so Bob and I know our players extremely well.

‘We feel like this is the best way after assessing everything for us to move forward. It’s never easy no matter what decision you make in a situation like this. It’s not going to be perfect. This is the biggest crisis that we’ve ever had since I’ve been coach here. It’s really serious stuff.’

Two-time MVP Stephen Curry has helped mediate discussions between Green and Poole, Kerr said Tuesday. 

‘We have spent the last week in deep discussions with all of our key figures in the organization, including Jordan and Draymond of course, Steph, all of our players, Bob, myself, and I can tell you there have been a lot of conversations, individual, one-on-one discussions, players-only discussions,’ Kerr said. ‘Everything that you can think of, all the different combinations that are possible to have in a conversation, we’ve had them. It’s been an exhaustive process.’

Green has continued working individually while he’s been away from the team.

Moses Moody, a second-year guard, backed the move, saying: ‘I support their decision.’

Kerr, while opting against a suspension, still made it seem that Green has some more work to do to make amends. ‘He broke our trust with this incident but I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt because I think he’s earned that, and I think our team feels the same way,’ Kerr said.

The team is investigating how footage of the incident, taken from a private practice, was leaked to TMZ.

When asked if he was more worried about the leak than the punch, Kerr told reporters ‘I don’t rank these things.’

‘I am concerned about both,’ he said, as quoted by Heavy.com’s Sean Deveney. ‘They’re both a problem. The incident is a problem, the leak is a problem.’

News of the incident first broke last week, but the footage did not surface until Friday. 

The clip shows Green exchanging words with Poole along the baseline before bumping chests with the smaller guard, who attempts to gently push the veteran forward out of the way as concerned teammates and coaches begin to take notice.

It’s then that the 6-foot-6 Green, 32, lunges at the 6-foot-4 Poole, 23, with a right hand to the face.

Some onlookers stepped in while others, including reigning NBA Finals MVP Stephen Curry, stood by and simply watched the skirmish unfold. Ultimately a throng of six or so bystanders were able to separate the pair.

Poole reportedly finished practice, so he apparently was uninjured. 

Myers acknowledged the incident later, saying ‘these things happen.

‘Nobody likes it,’ Myers told reporters. ‘We don’t condone it, but it happens.

‘Draymond apologized to the team. Jordan was there in the room,’ Myers continued. ‘As far as any suspension, punishment, fine, we will handle that internally.’

The cause of the fight remains somewhat of a mystery.

One report claimed teammates were upset that Poole had been talking incessantly about building a pool on his property and the banter ultimately got to Green, but Curry has since called that theory ‘absolute BS.’

Myers, speaking with reporters last week, did not have a specific answer to offer.

‘That question was asked: ”Was this something beyond the line that was said?”’ Myers said. ‘The answer I heard was, ”No, it was not different than normal bickering within a scrimmage.”’

Both Green and Poole are eligible for lucrative contract extensions from the cash-strapped Warriors, who are trying to reduce an already skyrocketing luxury tax bill. Last season, en route to their fourth title in the last eight seasons, the Warriors racked up an NBA-record $170.3 million in luxury taxes on top of their league-high $184 million roster payroll.

In theory, Green and Poole are competing for whatever money the team is willing to spend going forward. 

Various internet reports have claimed that Poole’s ego has grown as he’s approached a new contract extension, perhaps contributing to the friction with Green, but Kerr seemed to dismiss that on Thursday.  

‘The only thing I will say is Jordan [Poole’s attitude] has been fantastic throughout camp,’ Kerr told reporters. 

Myers said the incident has not impacted negotiations with Poole. 

Both ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith and Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young suggested that Green is attempting to make his way to the Lakers. Green, who can opt out of his current contract after the season, shares an agent, Rich Paul, with LeBron James and fellow Lakers star Anthony Davis. 

Now in his 10th season, Green has four NBA titles coming off last June’s Finals victory over Boston. The problem is he has occasionally bumped heads with teammates, such as an infamous on-court spat with Kevin Durant in 2017, and even Kerr has been caught complaining about the former Defensive Player of the Year.

During a 2019 game, Kerr appeared to say ‘I’m so f***ing tired of Dramond’s s***,’ to a member of his staff.

Given the chance to clarify what he had said, Kerr downplayed the incident with a joke.

‘No, the lip-readers were wrong,’ he told reporters. ‘What I said was, ”I beg to differ with Draymond’s approach tonight.” Those were my exact words. I don’t know how somebody misconstrued that.’

Kerr did admit that he and Green had a private conversation about the matter afterwards.

Green certainly has a reputation as a puncher, and has been caught swinging at opponents’ genitals on several occasions, including once in the 2016 NBA Finals when he punched LeBron James’ groin. Green was ultimately suspended for the following game. 

‘Jordan Poole got caught sleeping because he didn’t think Draymond would punch a guy above the waist,’ former Slam reporter Ryan Jones joked on Twitter.