Draymond Green Says Punching Jordan Poole Doomed Warriors' Season, Wants You To Feel Sorry For Him
Now that the Golden State Warriors are sitting at home watching the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers battle it out for the Western Conference, Draymond Green seems to have had an epiphany. The Warriors' big man has come to the realization that punching teammate Jordan Poole, and knocking him out cold, prior to the season may have hurt his team.
Green joined Stephen A. Smith on ESPN's alternate feed of Game 1 between the Nuggets and Lakers on Tuesday night. To Smith's credit, he brought up Green's incident with Poole, and while Green admitted that it essentially set up Golden State for failure, he didn't exactly sound sorry about it.
He spent the full segment talking about how the punch affected him, instead of how it actually affected Poole, the man he knocked unconscious.
"We're not playing right now, because when you speak about the fouling, when you speak about all of the slippage we had as a team on the road, not being able to come together," Green explained. "None of those things happen if that (the punch) doesn't happen, because the voice that I am and the departments that I lead this team in, there was a ton of slippage due to me sitting back, me not saying anything, me trying to allow that situation to play itself out and give it time to heal."
"I would say probably about February I started to feel like myself again and speak more," Green continued. "But guess what, there was five months of the season where slippage has just been occurring."
There is no question that Green is a leader on the Warriors team and plays a pivotal role inside that locker room, but that doesn't mean he doesn't sound out of touch while explaining the situation.
Sure, him punching a teammate affected his psyche, but it's a safe bet it affected Poole's a lot more.
Green wanting the audience to somehow feel sorry for him, while he was the one throwing the punch, may seem ludicrous because it is.
His outlook on the situation isn't the least bit surprising, however. The NBA and the media treat Green as if he's one of the most important and untouchable people in the game. Green knows he can say anything and get away with it, and that includes him having zero remorse for knocking out a teammate and setting his team up for doom this season.
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