Everything is worse when there’s video.
That’s certainly the case when it comes to the altercation at a Golden State Warriors practice that was originally reported Wednesday as a punch thrown and landed by Draymond Green on Jordan Poole.
A day later, Warriors general manager Bob Myers said the team would handle any discipline internally. The whole thing was supposed to just blow over from there and become a blip in the news cycle that would be forgotten about by next week.
Then, video of the altercation leaked Friday.
Now it’s clear this thing isn’t going anywhere. Everyone had something to say, including NBA players. I’m not sure what people expected to see when hearing Green punched Poole, but based on some of the social reactions, the video is obviously worse than they thought.
It’s insane that this got leaked, but also, Dray is surely off the team now, right? https://t.co/OgZluHF6u7
— Mo Mooncey (@TheHoopGenius) October 7, 2022
Yeah…a fine isn’t gonna cut it https://t.co/HrWfu26MSY
— Brian Witt (@Wittnessed) October 7, 2022
Yea it’s no coming back from this.. bra been waiting for this day. https://t.co/ccpHsk5uIW
— Darius Slay (@bigplay24slay) October 7, 2022
We can all agree that Green shouldn’t have punched Poole, no matter what was said between the two. Where I part from others, though, is in thinking Golden State should elevate Green’s discipline. I couldn’t disagree with that more. The biggest reason is because it wouldn’t mean anything. It would only be a reaction to public pressure.
The video is new to us, but it isn’t new to the team. The people who needed to know what happened likely went straight to the video before any kind of discipline was even discussed (and they probably aren’t happy the video got out). But if they did their due diligence in talking to everyone involved, which I’m assuming they did, then they settled on a punishment that all parties were agreeable to.
If that’s not the case, and this causes some dissension in the locker room, then sure, do what needs to be done.
But if Poole was able to put this behind him without any kind of suspension for Green, then why should anyone else care? The reality is that these type of altercations likely happen more often than people know. This one just happened to leak out, and that shouldn’t change what the punishment would have been otherwise.
