It’s been almost three years since Draymond Green landed a punch on Jordan Poole. The fight would inadvertently leave a dark mark on both their careers as Draymond’s reputation took a big hit, while Poole would soon be traded to the Washington Wizards. Now, former NBA stars will tell you fights are as common in the locker room as stinky socks, but this one in particular doesn’t want to die down.
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Earlier this week, a viral post on social media revealed what was said before the altercation, alleging that head coach Steve Kerr had asked Poole to stand up for himself. Poole would oblige and have a go at Draymond, saying, “you’re an expensive backpack for 30.” This would tick off Green royally, and in the heat of the moment, he would clock Poole.
Draymond has since responded to the tweet with a bunch of cap emojis, basically dismissing the claims. Now, he has previously addressed the matter, publicly apologizing to Poole for his behavior. The matter was tabled earlier tonight on the Road Trippin podcast, where former NBA champions Kendrick Perkins, Richard Jefferson, and Channing Frye offered their opinions.
Jefferson has now hinted that, although publicly unacceptable, Green’s actions might not have been as unique as people may think. There might have been some justification to it as well, he seemingly suggested.
“So, we haven’t heard much from Jordan Poole about the situation. We heard from Draymond, but everybody’s got their own version of the story, and then there’s the truth, right? Everybody’s got their own version. And you’re no longer teammates; you were champions together,” Jefferson said.
“We’ve seen Jordan Poole act out of pocket on a basketball court. That should be checked … Even when he’s with the Wizards, some of the things that he was doing on the court and his behavior is the behavior of a basketball player that needs to be checked, right? Talented player, NBA champion, no question … But on the Wizards, we’ve seen some of the shots … some of the attitude. We’ve seen that, right?” he asked.
Frye also concurred with Jefferson, stating that they have all seen the trajectory of both their careers since the incident and questioned Poole’s attitude. He believes that Poole said something to get clocked by Draymond but could never get one back and was, hence, upset about it.
Perkins, however, saw it a little differently. “Over the last two to three years, Jordan Poole has been remembered as , not as an NBA champion but as a guy that was damn near knocked out by Draymond. Draymond, over the last two to three years, has been remembered or been talked about as the guy that caused problems on the floor,” he said.
“Not a 4-time NBA champion, not a former Defensive Player of the Year … So, we may talk about it but society knows him as a guy that has been a troublemaker on the floor, got into altercations and its sad because I don’t believe that Jordan Poole would never live this down,” Perkins added.
Perkins asserted that they knew how important to the Warriors’ championship win, adding that he believed Poole was going to have a glorious time with the Pelicans this year. He hopes that Poole can just get over the incident and get his “s*** together, take his basketball more serious consistently and really show us what the f*** he could do.”
All three legends agreed that while young players must stand up to bullies, they must also sometimes take one on the chin, metaphorically, if a veteran, especially a franchise veteran, is dropping some truth bombs on them. Perkins also made it a point to explain that it isn’t like back in the day, when athletes were throwing punches at each other regularly during practice sessions.
Jefferson, meanwhile, pointed out that the reason these stories are now coming out is that a lot of NBA players are on a podcast, or have their own podcast. So there’s bound to be far too many versions of the same incident being told in the media. He also claimed that he wasn’t surprised at the Draymond-Poole incident because he had seen it far too many times in his career.
Even Allie Clifton, who once served as a Cleveland Cavaliers sidelines reporter back in the day, admitted to having seen some stuff that she would never air in public because it had happened in a space where the athletes had a right to privacy. Needless to say, the story of this particular fight now needs to be put 6 feet under the ground. It literally serves no one except Twitter accounts with blue ticks looking to make a quick buck!
