Green says if not for punching Poole, team would still be alive
Draymond Green believes the Warriors would still be playing if it hadn’t been for him.
Speaking to Stephen A. Smith on ESPN’S alternate broadcast of Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals on Tuesday night, Green said the blame for the Warriors’ shortcomings fall directly on him for splintering the locker-room trust 10 months ago.
Everything changed for the Warriors when Green punched Jordan Poole in the face and, days later, video of the chemistry-shattering jab leaked to the public.
Green took a backseat during the first few months of the season, trying to allow time to heal the wounds he caused. But as he walked on eggshells trying to pick his spots to speak out, the Warriors floundered.
Instead of a title defense from the top of the league, Golden State was around .500 all season, barely avoided the playin and ultimately fell in six games to the Los Angeles Lakers in the West semifinals.
Green said he started to feel more empowered to use his voice around February, but by then, it was too late to change the trajectory of the Warriors’ season.
“You are who you are at that point,” Green told Smith. “You built bad habits. That is who you are now. And so to try to correct them then, it’s like, OK, you might get a little bit better — we did, we ended up in the second round of the playoffs — but not at a championship level.”
Coach Steve Kerr also got real about the impact Green’s punch had on this season.
“There’s no hiding from it, the incident with Draymond and Jordan at the beginning of the year played a role in” the Warriors’ championship culture shift, Kerr said.
The incident between Green and Poole almost served as a metaphor; the Warriors’ touted two generations of the Warriors’ dualtimeline plan squared up for an inevitable blow up.
The veteran trio had spent the past decade tailoring their strengths and skill sets around each other to become a three-headed monster wreaking havoc around the league.