With more than a week for the start of the 2022-23 NBA season, and with their triumph over the Celtics in last season’s NBA Finals still fresh in the memory, everything seemed to be just finefor the Warriors. Until this week.
On Wednesday night, The Athletic reported that Draymond Green and Jordan Poole were involved in a physical altercation at morning practice. Since then, there’snothing else the NBA community has talked about.
This situation is expected to shake things up in the Bay area, with many people wondering whetherGreen (who is understood to have punched Poole) will be fined. On Thursday, general manager Bob Myers addressed the incident.
NBA News: GM Bob Myers says Warriors haven’tmade a decision on Green yet
“As far as any suspension, punishment, fine, we’re going to handle that internally,” Myers said, via NBC Sports. “I understand you might have questions on that, but that’s going to be an internal process. I don’t think [Green will miss any games] at this point.”
While Myers said the team has yet to decide ‘internally’ what to do with Green, coach Steve Kerr said he expects him to be back at team practice on Saturday. Myers added that Green has already offered an apology to the team.
“Everybody’s fine. Jordan practiced today. Draymond didn’t,” Myers added. “Look, it’s the NBA. Professional sports. These things happen. Nobody likes it, we don’t condone it, but it happened. Draymond apologized to the team this morning. Jordan was there in the room, I was in the room, the team, the coaches, players. And we heard that.
“I just said you’re better than this. Don’t do this. Don’t do this to yourself. Don’t put yourself in this position,” Myers said he told Green. “Still love the person, but don’t love what he did. Still love the guy. He is a good person. He is. I’ve seen a lot of the [good] things he does. Yesterday wasn’t one of them. He’s going to make amends, and he started with it this morning.”
Both Green and Poole are entering their final year of their contracts, though Myers suggested their deal situations won’t be affected by this episode. It’s certainly too early to bring this kind of turmoil to a team that just won a title. However, it’s not too late to fix things either.