Draymond Green confirms verbal Jordan Poole chew-out report from January
Draymond confirms report he chewed out JP after January win originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
With the Draymond Green-Jordan Poole preseason altercation seemingly in the past, the Warriors are two wins away from advancing to the 2023 Western Conference semifinals.
And one sign that the team truly has moved on from the punch came back in January, Green confirmed to The Athletic's Shams Charania on Sunday.
Charania previously had reported, citing league sources, that Green's role as a leader following the punch was reasserted after a Jan. 27 home win over the Toronto Raptors, when the four-time NBA champion "verbally chewed out Poole in the postgame locker room."
Per Charania, Green demanded less pouting and better decision-making from Poole -- words that were accepted by the young guard and applauded by Warriors leadership, including Steph Curry.
And, according to Green, the report was true.
"You heard?" Green asked Charania when the moment was brought up after Golden State's Game 4 victory over the Sacramento Kings at Chase Center.
Green told Charania he did, in fact, remember the intense conversation with Poole. He had taken "three or four steps back" when it came to his voice on the team in the aftermath of punching Poole during an October practice.
But by January, Green felt time had healed wounds.
"But at that point in the season, it’s time to make a push. It’s time to make a run," Green told Charania. "And everyone accepts things better after wins than after losses. So it was an understanding that we were putting together some wins.
“That moment happened leading into the All-Star break … I felt like it was important to have that moment. But I also felt it had to be at the right time. We hadn’t put many wins together all year in a row, and so you try to feel out the right time. We were on a home stand, trying to put wins together. I feel that was the time that you try to reinsert yourself."
And the fact that Green coming at Poole hard was accepted by all -- even the one Green had punched -- showed the team was more than ready to defend its NBA title, he said.
“And by the way, you may reinsert yourself right there and it’s not accepted," Green continued. "And if it’s not accepted, that’s on you. Take a step back again. But if it is accepted, it’s -- all right, here we go, now we can start putting stuff together and we started to turn the corner.
"Now, you can feel it. Our team is here, we ready to go. That’s a perfect time.”
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It's no secret the Warriors have had a turbulent season, starting with the punch and riding all the way through the squad's up-and-down 2022-23 NBA campaign.
But Golden State knew all it had to do was reach the playoffs, and the team's championship DNA would give it a fighting chance. That much has proven true so far this playoffs, and Green's reborn leadership certainly can be counted as a contributing factor.
