The Golden State Warriors’ title defense is already off to an interesting start.
Shams Charania of The Athletic reports that a physical altercation occurred at Warriors practice Wednesday that has the team considering disciplinary action against ex-Defensive Player of the Year Draymond Green. Charania says Green had a heated interaction with teammate Jordan Poole. The two players reportedly came chest-to-chest and exchanged pushes and shoves before Green escalated the situation by “forcefully” striking Poole.
Charania adds that Green and Poole are known to regularly get into verbal spats but that team management feels a line was crossed with Wednesday’s incident. You can read Charania’s full reporting on the situation here.
Green, 32, is one of the NBA’s most animated and controversial characters and serves as the emotional leader of the Warriors. As for Poole, 23, he is entering his fourth season in Golden State and broke out last year with 18.5 points per game. Poole is also having ongoing contract negotiations with the Warriors as he is currently due to hit restricted free agency next offseason. Similarly, Green can become a free agent next summer too and reportedly wants Golden State to pay up.
This kind of behavior is hardly surprising from Green and is perhaps not all that uncommon among NBA teams overall (after all, Warriors coach Steve Kerr once famously punched then-Chicago Bulls teammate Michael Jordan during a practice in the ’90s). But it is worth noting that Green has already been disciplined by the Warriors in the past for squabbles with teammates.
