Green explains Poole’s latest apology and wants him to move on

SACRAMENTO, California — Warriors of the Golden State star Draymond Green has apologized for punching a former teammate Jordan Poole and says it’s time to move on from the incident that devastated the Warriors’ locker room more than two years ago.

Green’s latest apology came after Poole said Saturday that he likes “most of those guys there” when asked about the warm reception he received upon his return to Chase Center – the home of the Warriors in San Francisco – as a member of the Washington Wizards.

Green posted a tweet in response to Poole’s comments that read, “I’m really sorry.”

“I responded because it’s been three years,” Green said Wednesday on “The Draymond Green Show with Baron Davis.” ‘Let’s move on. We have moved on. I’m really sorry. That statement [by Poole] it was kinda like it was looking for some sympathy…keep on labeling me as the bad guy. Move on, brother. It is what it is.

‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have hit him. But it happened. Let’s move on.’

Video has been leaked from a preseason training session in October 2022 in which Green and Poole exchanged words. Green walked over to Poole, who shoved Green. Green hit Poole.

Green later publicly apologized to Poole and his family. Green was fined by the Warriors and voluntarily left the team for a while, but did not miss a single game or face any discipline from the league.

The blow occurred during team camp after the Warriors won the NBA championship the season before. They then lost in the Western Conference semifinals during the 2023 postseason, and Poole was traded to Washington in a deal for Chris Paul in June of that year.

“I’m going back and forth a little bit on this,” Green said on the podcast. “I know I was wrong, but you can’t call a guy a B-word and push him without getting hit. So sometimes I’m in both spaces. The reality is, the answer is probably somewhere in the middle, right? I shouldn’t have turned him off like that. It was just a natural reaction.

“I think that’s kind of bringing that back to yourself for him. When you do that, you’re just bringing that moment back to yourself. You’ve just got to move on and keep pushing, man. It’s going.”

Last season, Green was suspended for five games for putting Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert in a chokehold was subsequently suspended indefinitely for beating Phoenix suns center Jusuf Nurkic in the face and ended up losing 12 games.

During that latest suspension, Green underwent counseling and mandatory check-in Zoom calls with executives from the NBA, the Warriors, the players’ union and his agent in order to return to play. Green told ESPN that has helped him become a “different” player and person this season. He said he had two therapists and a sports psychologist, but the check-in calls really helped him.

This season, Green has eight technical fouls, but only one ejection – compared to four last season.

“I want people to say, ‘Man, it was a little bleak here. But look where it went from there. And that’s because he took responsibility,'” Green told ESPN. “Regardless of how I felt about the Rudy situation, the Nurkic situation… the Jordan Poole [incident]whatever situation, i took it on the chin. I took responsibility for it and moved on.

“It’s my fault. I had to get better, but I failed. We all fail. But I’m not a failure.”

Green injured his left calf at the start of Saturday’s game against Washington. He missed Wednesday’s game at the Sacramento Kingsand he will be reevaluated next week.