For decades, I’ve had coaches and athletes tell me that the truth is on the tape.
I guess that applies to practice sucker punches, too.
TMZ acquired video of Draymond Green’s punch of teammate Jordan Poole in Wednesday’s Warriors practice. It was published on Friday morning.
The devil might be in the details, but the broad strokes of the incident are not in question. The video shows Green approaching Poole under the basket and going chest-to-chest with the 23-year-old guard. Poole pushed Green away. Green countered with a lunging punch to Poole’s jaw. As Poole went down, Green pinned him against the wall of the Warriors’ practice facility.
It’s an ugly scene. What Green did was indefensible. The Warriors knew that Wednesday. The world knows now.
The video is so illuminating that it’s fair to wonder if it changes things for Green and the Warriors.
But I don’t think it does.
The Warriors did not try to brush this incident under the rug. The organization acknowledged it happened, treated it with complete seriousness, and had the general manager, head coach, and top player talk about it in a Thursday press conference. They knew the full context of what happened in the moment on Wednesday — they lived it — and acted as they saw fit. Just because the world didn’t see the video until Friday doesn’t change the merits of the Warriors’ actions.
A few days of suspension, an apology to the team, and what we can only imagine as a hefty fine feels like appropriate in-house handling of the scenario. It doesn’t need to go further than that, because Green’s real punishment is what this punch will do to his reputation and, ergo, his wallet.
Green has only played for one NBA team, and his impact on that team has been immense. The box scores couldn’t possibly explain what Green means to the Warriors.
The Warriors’ success has made Green a near-mythical figure around the NBA. For every true story about Green and his zealousness, there’s another not-so-true legend being passed around the league.
Yes, Green constantly toes the line between fair and foul with his trash talk, his physical play, and his general temperament. His inability to always stay on the right side of that line has burned the Warriors in the past, in big, overt ways (see: the 2016 NBA Finals). But when Green goes right up to that line and stays a millimeter on the right side of it, it makes him one of the most effective leaders, players, and winners in the league.
“One of his superpowers is being able to bring his fiery competitiveness and his voice. I don’t want him to ever lose that,” Steph Curry said Thursday. “So whatever it takes to maintain that presence and trust and rebuild whatever he needs to — that’s the journey we’re gonna be on.”
But punching your teammate — one nearly a decade younger than you — during practice? That’s not just a bit over the line — it’s two counties over.
Fighting in the NBA happens, but it’s fair to say a lesser player than Green would have been sent packing for what he did.
For the Warriors, the positives of Green have always outweighed the negatives. Even now, that’s the case, though the margins are tight.
But there’s not another team in the league that can make the same claim right now.
The Warriors have the infrastructure and trust to handle a situation like this and move past it. There’s loyalty between the organization and the players in the Bay. The Warriors are a one-off in this mercenary league.
But that loyalty only goes so far. This is a business, too. And Green wants a new contract. He wants one now.
For the Warriors, it’s a tricky proposition: How do you value a player who is in decline, as we saw in last season’s NBA Finals, but is still integral to this team winning championships?
Add in the Warriors’ luxury tax situation, where they’re paying six dollars on every dollar they spend, and it makes Green’s future complicated.
And that was before the punch.
After it, things are pretty straightforward.
When Green punched Poole, he squandered the benefit of the doubt in nearly all things.
He hurt his ever-expanding media endeavors for the near future. Will Smith was once the ultimate A-lister. When was the last time you saw him?
But more importantly, Green destroyed his leverage over the Warriors in contract negotiations. He might even have to opt into the final year of his contract now.
After all, what team will use its salary cap space on a massive Green deal after this?
Even the Lakers and Green’s buddy LeBron James couldn’t bet $100 million on the idea that they are better equipped to handle Green — all his good and all his bad — than the Warriors.
We all saw him sucker-punch a young teammate in practice. We saw him brazenly lose his cool during the preseason. It’s fair to wonder what else he has done throughout the years.
It’s hard to imagine, right now and for a while to come, that some of those stories about Green that have floated around for years might be true.
The Warriors still need Green. No one can replace what he brings to this team. No one else in the NBA is like him, and there’s no other team in the NBA like the Warriors. Those two facts are related.
But the heartbeat of this team just confirmed that he won’t be landing the maximum-value contract he wants.
Green’s punch of Poole was an eight-figure mistake.
That’s a greater punishment than anything the Warriors could have handed out this week.
