According to former Golden State Warriors general manager Bob Myers, the Warriors never identified exactly who decided to leak footage of Draymond Green punching Jordan Poole.
Bob Myers on if the Warriors ever found who leaked the Draymond Green-Jordan Poole fight video:
“No… We looked. We tried, a third party, we couldn’t find him.”
(🎥 @OldManAndThree )
pic.twitter.com/ISqq5E6O7O— Ahn Fire Digital (@AhnFireDigital) April 6, 2024
Footage shared by TMZ Sports back in October of 2022 depicted Green punching Poole during a Warriors practice.
Green was handed a fine for his actions but wasn’t suspended. Poole reportedly didn’t think that the 34-year-old needed a suspension.
“Poole and Draymond spoke in front of the team a couple days ago,” ESPN’s Marc J. Spears said back in 2022. “Poole didn’t think it was necessary that Draymond get a suspension. It was put in front of the players whether they thought that Draymond deserved a suspension. And from what I was told is that the players weren’t comfortable levying that on one of their own teammates.”
Despite the fact that footage surfaced of Poole and Green’s incident shortly before the 2022-23 campaign, Poole was still able to have a decent season, even if it had its fair share of highs and lows.
The 24-year-old averaged a career-high 20.4 points to go along with 2.7 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 0.8 steals per game on 43.0 percent shooting from the field and 33.6 percent shooting from 3-point range across 82 appearances during the regular season.
Poole’s time with the Warriors came to an end after Golden State was eliminated by the Los Angeles Lakers in the second round of the 2023 playoffs. Poole underperformed in the series against LeBron James and company, considering he averaged just 8.3 points per contest on 34.5 percent shooting from the field.
In the 2023 offseason, the Warriors dealt Poole along with Ryan Rollins, Patrick Baldwin Jr., a 2027 second-round pick, 2030 first-round pick and cash considerations to the Washington Wizards in exchange for floor general Chris Paul, one of the more accomplished players at his position in NBA history.
Poole’s career with the Wizards has gotten off to a rough start. He is averaging fewer points per game (17.1) on worse scoring efficiency (41.3 percent shooting from the floor and 32.3 percent shooting from deep) in the 2023-24 regular season compared to his final season with the Warriors.
Months ago, one NBA executive said that the Wizards are “stuck” with Poole thanks to his sizable contract.
“The Warriors did not really want to give him that money, but they knew they had to and that they could move him on later — they were hoping he would play better and they could get something more for him than Chris Paul, but that didn’t happen,” the executive told Heavy Sports. “But now Jordan Poole is the Wizards’ problem. They’re stuck with him. You’re not going to get a first-round pick. The Warriors were lucky to just get out from the contract. The Warriors had to give away a first-rounder to dump him.”
Here’s to hoping that Poole will be able to put his underwhelming play in the 2023-24 regular season behind him and head into the 2024-25 campaign ready to replicate the production that he enjoyed at times with the Warriors.
