This weekend in the NBA: Draymond, Obi and Pelinka
Some quick hitters on Monday morning.
Good morning. Let’s basketball.
Draymond
Alright, time for a mea culpa. Last week when the news first came out about Draymond Green “forcefully striking” Jordan Poole at practice, requiring an apology and leading to Green staying away for a couple days, I wrote that I was not at all concerned about the effects the incident would have on the Warriors.
That take was premature as on Friday morning video of Draymond punching Poole leaked to TMZ, and it was awful.
This wasn’t anything like the Warriors described it in their comments or their leaks to the media. This was an aggressive Green walking calmly across the court during a drill he wasn’t even in, getting in Poole’s face and earning a shove back from Poole, and then putting his whole body into a strike at Poole’s head. It wasn’t a tensions running high during a competitive scrimmage, or an NBA-style fake fight. Draymond went right at Poole, and the fact that Poole didn’t sustain any broken bones in his face is a bit of a shock.
On Saturday, Green had a press conference and appeared contrite in his apology and aware of how bad this looks. He said he’s staying away from the team for a while to work on himself — the team said that decision was mutual — but that he plans to play on Ring Night for the season opener. Poole still has not said anything. He did have a crazy good performance Sunday night, though.
The Athletic’s Marcus Thompson, as you would expect, had an incredible piece on where Draymond stands now. ($)
This was unacceptable because Green is 32 years old, a newlywed and a doting father. He should be well past behavior like this. He’s better than this. He’s too smart for this. If nothing else, he just gave every team in the league a reason to not pay him what he believes he is worth. He swung away whatever leverage he had over the Warriors, who now have to worry much less about backlash if they trade him or let him walk. This isn’t the think-three-steps-ahead Draymond who just anchored a championship defense.
This was unacceptable because the ultimate winner put himself and his teammates in a no-win situation.
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