Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sport
Kristen Wong

Draymond Green, Who Once Punched His Teammate, Gets Real About Heat Culture After Bam Incident

If there were ever a person qualified to comment on Bam Adebayo’s reported fight with Tyler Herro, it would be Draymond Green.

The ex-Heat teammates reportedly got into a physical altercation last week in which Adebayo struck Herro at a practice court in Vegas. Herro allegedly initiated the conflict by saying something to his former Miami teammate, and Adebayo punched him “without hesitation” in front of Herro’s AAU team, per The Athletic. Both the Heat and the Bucks declined to comment on the incident.

In the days shortly after, Green hopped on his podcast and shared his candid thoughts on a topic that he was notoriously familiar with. The Warriors star made headlines back in 2022 when he punched then-teammate Jordan Poole during practice, the video of which was leaked by TMZ and quickly made the rounds on social media. Green later apologized to Poole, was fined by the organization and took a leave of absence after the incident.

Regarding the Adebayo-Herro scuffle, Green said he found it “amusing” that the two players allegedly had a physical confrontation. He spent most of his animated spiel, however, questioning Heat vice president of basketball development Udonis Haslem for how Haslem planned to deal with the aftermath.

“I found it quite amusing that they got into it. Listen, I’m not one to sit and judge, like ‘Aw man, these guys got into a fight.’ It is what it is,” Green said. “I wonder, you know the one thing that I really started to wonder about was, I remember when I got into it with Jordan Poole, a little different situation I guess because these guys aren’t teammates anymore. But similar in the fact that Tyler Herro came up under Bam, he’s younger than Bam in the league, Bam has been in interviews speaking with Tyler Herro about how, ‘Yo, he got my back I got his back.’

“And I remember one person, when the Jordan Poole incident happened with me, who was really, really, really outspoken about it, who like everyone else didn’t have a ton of context because you weren’t there... and it really bothered me, was Udonis Haslem. And the reason it really bothered me is because, man everybody can have an opinion and your opinion is what your opinion is, but I saw Udonis Haslem get into it with guys on teams that was younger than him before, à la Jimmy Butler. Then he came out like, ‘That’s ridiculous! You get into it with your young guy I would never. I can’t believe you did that.’ ... What is it, ‘Heat Culture or Heat way?’ Maybe they don’t have fights. It really threw me for a loop.”

Green continued to speculate about how Haslem would potentially discipline Adebayo, noting that both Adebayo and Herro were under the Heat exec’s tutelage.

“When I first saw this, I was like damn. This is two young guys Udonis Haslem raised,” said Green. “... If you raised this young guy in the light of what you was saying about me, and now he punches this other young guy, that y’all kind of co-raised, are you gon’ to have that same energy?

“And the reality is I don’t want him to have that same energy because I love Bam. That’s my brother, my dog. ... Tyler Herro, who’s from Milwaukee like Jordan Poole, who has a lot of bravado as a young guy, probably said some very disrespectful things like Jordan Poole. I just wonder like man, I wonder if he gon’ have that same energy.”

Heat exec Udonis Haslem fires back at Draymond Green over comments on Bam Adebayo reportedly punching Tyler Herro

Haslem wasted no time responding to Green’s critical comments accusing him of hypocrisy and issued a fiery clap-back on his social media.

The three-time NBA champ explained how the two altercations (Green and Poole, Adebayo and Herro) were starkly different and suggested that Green had no business dropping his name into the conversation.

“I see some things just don’t change. lol. You was on sucka s--- four years ago when you swung on Jordan Poole and you on sucka s--- now. I usually don’t engage but since you went so far left to get my attention here it is!!!,” Haslem wrote on X.

“If you think your big 32 year old, 3 or 4 rings at the time having ass swinging on a 23 year old Jordan Poole at the time is the same then you are even more delusional that I thought.

“... Call it heat culture or what ever you want but before I let one player disrespect Spo in front of the squad, cut his legs out and disrupt what 15 other guys tryin to get accomplished, I’ll kick his ass. I owe that to ZO and Tim and Glen and the rest of my OGs.”

As Haslem noted, the two situations are different in the fact that Green was nearly a decade older than Poole when he punched him, and Green was—and still is—viewed as Golden State’s veteran leader whom the younger guys are meant to look up to. By contrast, Adebayo and Herro were closer in age (28 and 26) and newly ex-teammates, as Herro had been shipped out by the Heat to the Bucks as part of the blockbuster Giannis Antetokounmpo deal earlier this month.

Ultimately, no one knows exactly what went down between Adebayo and Herro (yet), and no video of their fight has been leaked at this time. Given Green’s petty tendencies and typical unwillingness to back down from a fight, his on-the-side spat with Haslem probably isn’t close to being over, either.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.