Having won the NBA championship last year, there was nothing that threatened the Warriors' mood ahead of the 2022-23 season. However, things changed in the blink of an eye when Draymond Green and Jordan Poole got into a physical altercation.
Golden State ultimately decided not to suspend the 32-year-old, who punched the young star at practice last week. The Dubs were able to handle this situation without the team falling apart, but somehow it feels like this is not water under the bridge yet.
Steve Kerr said in a press conference Green would be back in the rotation this preseason, though the veteran star has work to do to regain his teammates' trust. In fact, he's not even sure that his relationship with Poole will ever be the same again.
NBA News: Draymond Green not sure his relationship with Jordan Poole will be repaired
"I'm not sure. As I said before, that's not up to me. Nor do I think there's much relevance," Green said about his relationship with Poole from now on, via Fadeaway World. "Quite frankly, we both know how to play basketball and that is the most important for us. We're paid to do a job and we're gonna come and do that job to the best of our ability. We wanna continue to win so we gonna do what we have to do to win.
“As far as us moving forward, Jordan's a professional, I'm a professional. We have a job to do. We both have experienced a lot of winning over the course of our lives and we know what that takes. So we're going to just that, what it takes to win.
“I think the more time we get away from things, the better,” Green added. “We had our conversations about what we needed to do moving forward, and we’re gonna do that. We’re not gonna continue to hold onto the past. Doesn’t mean people don’t have feelings towards what happened or the situation, but we do all have goals. Individual goals, team goals, and we understand what needs to be done in order to reach those. That’s our focus.”
The Warriors have already faced a challenging test even before the season began. Now it comes the most difficult part, to prove whether they can really stick together to fight for another title.
