Former Warriors star Stephen Jackson offered Draymond Green a word of advice Thursday night in the wake of news that Green punched Jordan Poole in practice this week.
Jackson told Green he needed to address Poole and try to make amends after a verbal argument turned physical in Wednesday’s practice.
“I told him, he got to go to Poole and fix that, if he wanted to fix it. Jordan Poole don’t benefit from this at all. And there’s no reason to sucker punch a young fella,” Jackson said in an Instagram post shortly after TMZ published a video of the dust-up between Green and Poole. Green has “got to be the big boy and tell the little bro, ‘Look, I spazzed out.’… You never hit the little homies like that in practice or your teammates, man. You never do that. I’ve never done that bro.”
Jackson said that incidents between teammates are bound to happen in the competitive and emotional environment that is professional sports. But Green crossed the line when he slugged Poole.
The Warriors launched an investigation Friday into how TMZ obtained the now-viral video, which had surpassed 21.5 million views in the first seven hours of its release. Jackson, like many others on social media, suggested that the person who released the video should be punished.
The video, which doesn’t have audio, shows Green and Poole talking several feet apart before doing a drill. The exchange continued as Green approaches Poole and bumps him in the chest. Poole responded by pushing Green back with both hands, then Green lunges to take a swing at Poole.
Practice was paused as the two players needed to be separated. Poole was seen shooting at the end of Wednesday’s practice and he participated in Thursday’s scrimmage without any issues.
Green apologized to Poole and the rest of the team Thursday, but went home before practice. The Warriors plan to handle his punishment internally but don’t anticipate Green will miss any games.
Still, the video sent NBA Twitter into a frenzy.
Grizzlies guard Ja Morant tweeted eyeball emojis shortly after the video started making its rounds on social media. And Hawks guard Trae Young wrote on Twitter, “Draymond is tryna get to LA.”
Knicks guard Evan Fournier questioned how Poole would be able to be teammates with Green after getting sucker punched in the face.
Some people, such as NBA champion and former Warriors player Festus Ezeli, said fighting between teammates is inevitable. Many questioned how the video was leaked in the first place and some called for whoever shared the video to be fired.
