The Complete Timeline of the Draymond Green–Jordan Poole Beef

Last October, Draymond Green’s fist connected with Jordan Poole’s jaw during training camp, torpedoing the Golden State Warriors’ repeat quest before it could even begin. Nine and a half months later, the story is once again dominating the podcast circuit.

Maybe it’s because it’s the dead of July and there’s nothing else to talk about until Damian Lillard or James Harden gets traded.

Maybe it’s a moment we’ll revisit again and again because of the consequences it had for the dynasty that defined the NBA for nearly a decade. The Warriors, who have been to the Finals in six of the last nine years and won four titles, have survived injuries to their core, the departure of Kevin Durant, verbal spats, and the lost 2019-20 season. But the punch might be their undoing. It was a symbol of how their strengths could also sow the seeds of their self-destruction, with two strong personality elements—Green’s temper and Poole’s audacity—clashing on a team that Steve Kerr has intentionally empowered to lean into themselves.

Or maybe it keeps coming up because Green keeps talking about it. Poole, who was moved to the Washington Wizards this summer after the Warriors’ failed season-long attempt at reconciliation, has remained mum. He has mostly stuck to clichés, deflections, and memeable chin crunches—although he alluded to Draymond’s endless chatter in his Instagram Story a few days ago.

Maybe it’s because, despite Green’s constant podcast presence and round-the-clock Warriors coverage, we know just about everything except one titillating detail: what exactly Poole said. Either way, it feels like a good time to revisit all the events—both petty and large—that led us here.

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October 5, 2022: The Athletic reports a physical altercation between Draymond Green and Jordan Poole during practice, with the team “seriously considering disciplinary action” toward Green. The next day, TMZ posts a video that shows Green getting in Poole’s face, Poole shoving him away, and Green responding with a vicious right hand to Poole’s jaw.

The Warriors eventually hire a law firm to track down and punish the video leaker, with players and coaches expressing a level of frustration that, in hindsight, likely would have been more accurately directed toward Green. (The investigation ultimately led nowhere).

Meanwhile, the rest of us speculate on just how much money TMZ transferred to the leaker—likely a broke intern.

Oct. 7: Rudy Gobert gets in on the action.

Oct. 8: Green addresses the media for the first time. His tone is apologetic, one of self-disappointment. He laments the embarrassment the leak caused Poole and said he would do whatever he can “to help this team, to help Jordan and his family, and move forward from there” before stepping away from the team to deal with personal issues he suggests contributed toward his recklessness.

Oct. 11: The Warriors opt to fine but not suspend Green, who returns to practice and plays in the Warriors’ final preseason game. Andscape’s Marc Spears reports that Poole did not think a suspension was necessary.

When asked why Green wasn’t suspended this time, after he was suspended for a verbal altercation with Kevin Durant in 2018, Kerr asked the public to lean on the franchise’s track record:

“We don’t look at everything in a vacuum and say, ‘We did that there, we have to do that here.’ We would hope that we’ve developed enough equity with the experience we have with our fan base, with the people watching over the last decade that people can trust us that we’ve really put a lot of thought into this decision.”

This wouldn’t be the first time the Warriors tried to manage Draymond’s temper without officially sanctioning him, and their decision seemed girded in a belief in what Kerr called their “collective experience,” as well as Poole’s willingness to move forward. But ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the timing played a factor. “They didn’t want to suspend Draymond Green and keep him” from being present for the regular-season opener, when the Warriors would be presented with their 2022 championship rings.

Oct. 15: Just 10 days after the infamous punch, Poole signs a four-year, $140 million extension with the Warriors, the biggest move and a critical commitment in an offseason in which Golden State let Gary Payton II and Otto Porter Jr. walk. The move is viewed as a strong signal that the Warriors are leaning into the two-timeline approach that just helped them win a title.

Green, who is also up for a new deal and could enter the open market at the end of the 2022-23 season, does not sign an extension, setting off whispers around the league that this might be his final season in a Warriors uniform. It’s high noon for the former Defensive Player of the Year. Considering the luxury tax bill that team owner Joe Lacob is facing in the offseason, someone is likely heading out, and it’s probably not the 23-year-old who just inked a lucrative extension.

Oct. 16: Poole addresses the media for the first time since being punched:

[Draymond] apologized, and we plan on handling ourselves that way. We’re going to play basketball. Everybody in the locker room knows what it takes to win a championship, and we’re going to do that on the court. That’s really all I have to say on the matter. We’re here to win a championship and keep hanging banners.

Poole, despite being the victim in this situation, has stuck with these short, professional responses, with an eye toward moving on throughout the ordeal, despite having every reason in the world to lash out.

Oct. 17: The night before Golden State’s ring ceremony, Green addresses the incident in the debut of a self-produced documentary that airs on TNT. Or rather, he addresses the leaked video and how he doesn’t even know whether it went viral because he was too busy playing with his daughter and going to the gym during what the narrator calls his “exile” from the team.

“I was told, ‘The world has been able to see one of your worst moments. Look at all the upside you have now,’” Green says in the closing minute. On the one hand, it’s true. When you’ve hit rock bottom, there’s only one direction you can go. But he sounds eerily like a PR handler for a plummeting legacy stock insisting it’s actually a great time to buy.

Kerr has always wanted to foster an environment where players can be themselves and has helped unlock Green’s potential—among others’—as a result. But in the past, the organization has done a better job of reining him in and holding him accountable. In hindsight, it’s becoming more clear where the Warriors truly erred: leaning on their track record of previous crisis management without holding true to the balance between freedom and accountability that allowed them to foster that environment of trust.

Dec. 21: Poole steps to the free throw line in the midst of a 41-point deficit against Brooklyn, and the crowd at Barclays unloads a “Draymond punched you” chant. Guys. He knows. Tough scene.

January 5, 2023: After a two-and-a-half-month hiatus, the prodigal podcaster returns with the first episode of The Draymond Green Show since his infamous punch.

Jan. 13: A week later, Green joins Taylor Rooks to explain how “that video was put out there like that to portray me the exact way it did.” That is how cameras work!

Jan. 25: With just over a minute remaining in a tight game against the irksome Grizzlies, Steph Curry watches in utter disbelief as Poole clanks an even more irksome 30-foot 3-pointer. In a rare bout of impulsive frustration, the two-time MVP throws his mouthguard into the stands, triggering an automatic ejection.

The first half of the season has been wobbly for the champs, and Poole, expected to make a jump after signing a new deal, has seen his efficiency drop across the floor. He’s taking 8.1 triples per game and shooting 4 percentage points worse while averaging 3.5 turnovers per game. Last season’s charming Curry impression has teetered into delusion. Poole often drives into the paint like he’s on stilts, tripping over nothing, relinquishing the ball to the opponent. He looks lost and like he’s trying too hard to prove that he’s not.

Poole redeems himself with the game-winning layup against the Grizzlies, meets Curry in the tunnel, and imitates him by throwing his mouthguard out before the two laugh and embrace. Water under the bridge, you could say, but the win gets the Warriors back to just .500.

March 7: After practically begging for the ball in the middle of the floor with Poole failing to find him, Green turns around in frustration right when Klay Thompson delivers the entry pass, resulting in a turnover in a close loss. Had the punch not happened, this is exactly the kind of mistake that Green, historically the outspoken gatekeeper of the Warriors’ unselfish style, could have gone over with Poole afterward.

March 10: Dillon Brooks reminds us that even Dillon Brooks has never punched one of his own teammates before.

March 16: Draymond finally gets suspended. But not for the punch. In the second quarter of a game against the Clippers, he bounces the ball off Russell Westbrook’s head and receives his 16th technical foul of the season, triggering an automatic suspension.

April 9: Draymond gets his revenge on Gobert after the Wolves big man finds himself in a scuffle with his own teammate, Kyle Anderson. Fuck around and find out, right? Sidenote: These are the only kinds of shots I want to see these two former DPOYs taking at each other.

May 2: A late miss from 30 feet overshadows Poole’s best performance of the playoffs: a 21-point, six-assist outing in Golden State’s Game 1 loss to the Lakers in the second round. Afterward, he credits “the opportunity to play more out there and catch my rhythm. I think that’ll be a big thing. Only so much you can do when you play 15 minutes,” likely referring to Kerr’s decision to play him only 19 minutes in the previous round’s Game 7 against the Kings.

May 8: Poole plays just 10 minutes in Golden State’s Game 4 loss. Kerith Burke documents the postgame tension:

Poole averages just 8.3 points in 20.7 minutes per game against the Lakers, and the Warriors lose the series in six games. It’s the first time the trio of Steph, Draymond, and Klay has lost a Western Conference playoff series in the Kerr era.

May 10: Smash Mouth, of “Hey now, you’re an all-star” fame, finally weighs in:

May 16: Green admits to Stephen A. Smith that he thinks the Warriors would still be playing if he hadn’t hit Poole. The two most interesting tidbits:

We’re not playing right now because when you speak about the fouling, when you speak about all the slippage that we had as a team on the road, not being able to come together, none of those things happen if that doesn’t happen. Because the voice that I am, in the departments I lead this team in, there was a ton of slippage due to me sitting back, me not saying anything, trying to allow that situation to play itself out and giving it time to heal. But while you’re giving it all the time, guess what? By February, I started to feel like myself again and speak more. But guess what? There’s five months of a season where slippage has just been occurring. And by February, if that slippage has been going on, you are who you are. You’ve built those habits. Also, I’m aware that Jordan struggled a little bit at times this year. I get that. Had I not done that, the relationship we had, I could have been there for him, I could have carried him through that. I wasn’t necessarily able to do that once everything happened. I think I could have been of more service to him.

The same day, in his exit interview, Kerr admits the punch fractured the team’s trust:

Anytime some trust is lost, then it makes the process much more difficult, and there was some trust lost. That’s as blunt as I can be. We have to get back to what has made us really successful, which is a really trusting environment and a group that relies on one another and makes each other better.

After a season of trying to downplay its impact, both these answers reveal the layers of complexity within the team that the punch created, and the ways they weren’t able to unpack it all in time to get back on track. It seems like Draymond’s actions not only compromised Poole and the team’s trust in him, but also his ability to trust himself. It also speaks to a potential leadership vacuum. The two-timeline approach didn’t just overtax the young players on the court, but once Green lost his gravitas, it probably became too much for the likes of Kerr, Steph, Klay, a sidelined Andre Iguodala, and Kevon Looney to not only manage the fracture but also be voices of day-to-day accountability.

Speaking of accountability, if this was the last word Green had on the incident, we probably wouldn’t be doing this story. Alas …

June 5: Kerr joins The Draymond Green Show and compliments Miami’s young players for accepting their roles during the Heat’s run to the NBA Finals:

None of those guys on Miami are sitting there saying, “Well, I didn’t play,” or “Man, they put in so-and-so.” They’re just all about winning, and you know this from our groups that we’ve had, when you have that championship mentality, every guy is bought in, every guy is just trying to win, nobody—nobody cares about any of that stuff. You don’t go in the locker room saying, “Well, I should have played more.” You just wanna win. And that’s the beauty of finding that magic when you have a championship team, is that everybody is bought in, and it makes the decision for the coach really simple. You just go with your gut, and go with whoever’s playing well.

June 22: The Warriors agree to trade Poole, Ryan Rollins, and draft picks to the Wizards for Chris Paul, who will be either the third- or fourth-oldest active player in the NBA next season, depending on whether Iguodala hangs up his sneakers.

June 26: We get our first revelation into what Poole might have said to make Green so mad.

From Cam’ron’s mouth to our ears, the rapper alleges Poole, a Michigan alum, told Green, who attended Michigan State, “I fucked more bitches at Michigan State than you,” that Green would be playing in Sacramento next year, and finally, the fighting words that provoked the punch: “Why is your Twitter handle @MoneyGreen when you broke and you not gonna get a new contract?”

I don’t want to believe this—not because I don’t trust Cam’ron, who has friends in that locker room—but because I don’t want to believe the dynasty could be punctured due to something so petty. But the last dig was pretty personal, considering how their contract situations coincided.

Not punch-someone-over-it personal, but you can’t blame Green for getting frustrated. The problem, as it usually is with Green, was the way he expressed it. He could have filled Poole’s car with popcorn. Or put detergent in his shampoo. Or, I don’t know, talked to him about it. Maybe he did. But Green is a historical line stepper, and if you’re gonna dish ’em, you gotta learn to take ’em.

I’m reminded of Logan Murdock’s feature on Poole last season, which flashed back to when the young guard would trash-talk vets, and Green saw a kindred spirit and came to his defense:

“I was a big advocate of his then,” Green says. “I think a lot of people didn’t like his attitude early on, and I loved it. I was a rookie that talked, so I’m not going to go tell another rookie to shut up because y’all think, ‘Oh, you young. You shouldn’t say a word.’ I don’t roll like that. And so right then and there I’m like, ‘Oh, you getting under people’s skin. OK. I love that.’”

And Poole had a plan to put action to those words.

“I’m always going to go at somebody, always,” Poole says. “No matter what it is. It was just a matter of me figuring out how to do it on this level.”

One imagines Poole doing to Green what the future Hall of Famer has done to so many others: poking, prodding, and finally provoking—the way a bully can finally drive the bullied to belligerence. It wouldn’t be the first mentor-mentee relationship in history to get spoiled in similar fashion: the student imitating the master in a way the latter just can’t stand.

June 30: After moving on from Poole, the Warriors bring back Green, signing him to a four-year, $100 million contract extension that will pay $27.6 million in his final year, when he is 36.

July 18: With the security of a new contract, Draymond revisits the punch again. “I don’t just hit people,” Green explains on Patrick Beverley’s podcast. “Dialogue of course happens over time, and you usually ain’t triggered by something that fast to that degree, you know what I’m saying? This is a team. Ain’t nobody on my team triggering me in an instant. We know stuff you don’t say amongst men. We know things that you have to stand on.”

First off, YouTube and the state of Michigan would like a word. Second, this line of reasoning contains the same undertone that Green has used for a subtle defense, the “but” that robs his apologies of the fullness of remorse. Most of us have been here. We’ve done something wrong, but we also feel wronged, so we sway between accountability and defensiveness. But sometimes, you just have to swallow your pride.

Since we still don’t know what exactly was said (despite Green’s general loquaciousness), this remains the most charitable reading of Green’s actions. It makes me wonder whether what Poole actually said was either:

A. So embarrassing for Green that he doesn’t want to put it out on the airwaves
B. Actually not that bad at all, and would reflect even worse on Green’s lack of self-control

July 19: Jordan’s dad, Anthony Poole, responds:

What’s interesting here is how Green warns Anthony not to call him a bitch, employing the same reasoning LeBron had for feeling provoked when Green called him a bitch in 2016. Maybe that moment was a lesson for Green. Then again, he reportedly brandished the term again against Durant and Poole, who finally weighed in with his cryptic IG Story.

Later that day, Green falls for a fake tweet and goes after Kevin Garnett of all people:

Sometimes you just gotta log off.

July 20: NBC Sports’ Monte Poole (no relation) reports potential trouble brewing between Green and another young Warrior, 20-year-old Jonathan Kuminga.

Green actually talked about this a few weeks earlier, on Paul George’s podcast:

It’s something that I’ve actually tried to be more aware of. What I’ve tried to understand—[Anthony Vereen], who is one of our assistant coaches helped me understand last year is, I felt like I was struggling with Kuminga a bit. Struggling like, “What am I doing wrong?” Not necessarily what he is doing wrong. AV, who has a great relationship with him, told me, “Do you know him?” That’s interesting. I start thinking about what it means to know someone. I don’t know him, yet I’m trying to lead him. That’s something [Michigan State coach Tom Izzo] taught me as a freshman. … Now I understand. I need to continue to do that. You can’t get so lost in life that you can’t stop doing those things that I know create success, especially in leading, mentoring, and being that vet for someone. Those are the things you have to do. So it really opened my eyes, and I’ve been trying to do a much better job with that, checking in on him, hoping to get together with him this summer. But I can say, that caused some of our issues: trying to lead guys and not knowing them. I lost some of that, and had to get it back.

What’s encouraging here, for Green and the Warriors as a whole, is the acknowledgment that knowing what you’re supposed to do isn’t the same thing as actually doing it. And it’s a reminder that the dust has yet to settle on the consequences of Green’s punch, which will hinge not only on where Green goes from here, but also on the success of the Chris Paul experiment and the direction Poole’s career takes in Washington and beyond. With two months left until training camp, it’s clear that the ripple effects of the punch are still being felt. The question is how far they’ll continue to reverberate. In hindsight, the punch torpedoed a season. Only time will tell whether it torpedoed a dynasty.