Before the 2022–23 NBA season started, Warriors teammates Draymond Green and Jordan Poole were involved in a preseason scuffle at training camp, and Green stated clearly that he felt the incident was one of the factors for the Warriors not making it back to the NBA Finals.
Green punched Poole during a preseason practice and the video of the incident was leaked on social media. The team and Green mutually agreed he should leave the team for a week before the start of the regular season, but the veteran returned and played his usual impact role for Golden State throughout the club’s up-and-down year.
Because of his time away from the team, Green told ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith Tuesday that him choosing not to speak his mind to the team and lead in the same way after the incident caused the Warriors to slip behind and not become a championship-caliber team this season.
“We’re not playing right now because when you speak about the fouling, when you speak about all the slippage that we had as a team on the road not being able to come together, none of those things happens if that doesn’t happen,” Green said. “There was a lot of slippage due to me sitting back, me not saying anything, me trying to allow that situation to play itself out, giving it time to heal.”
Draymond Green told me that he believes the Warriors would still be playing if it wasn’t for the incident between him and Jordan Pool pic.twitter.com/B9txJCl0OY
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) May 17, 2023
Golden State coach Steve Kerr even admitted that he thought the altercation impacted the team and caused some trust to be lost in the locker room.
The Warriors were eliminated by the Lakers in six games in the second round of the playoffs and will now face questions about their future headed into the offseason.
