After punching his own teammate during practice, Warriors star Draymond Green is fighting hard to save his legacy and reputation.
The good news is, this is nothing new, and we have seen teammate scuffles countless times before. It is nothing that cannot be resolved with time and effort.
What makes this situation so different, however, is that the whole scene was caught on video and leaked to the public. Now, people are free to draw their own conclusions.
But amid all the chaos, and can’t help but wonder who it was that leaked the footage and what kind of motivations they had for releasing it to the world.
TMZ Paid Thousands For The Release Of Draymond Green Video
One obvious motive is financial, and it’s no question that whoever sent TMZ the video got paid handsomely for their betrayal.
Not long after TMZ Sports published the video of Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green clocking teammate Jordan Poole during practice Wednesday, speculation on how much the outlet paid for the footage began.
Anonymous Twitter account @incarceratedbob wrote “rumors are TMZ paid … $120,000.”
Over the course of our conversations with former TMZ employees since the Green-Poole video went live on Friday, each said it’s difficult to fathom the outlet paying the numbers being thrown around for this type of video.
While $120,000 was the original guess, former TMZ employees confirmed that the figure is far too high to be accurate. Instead, they proposed a much lower amount of $10,000 or less.
These sources told Front Office Sports they believe there is no way the video even approached that rumored $120,000 number.
In all likelihood, the video may have even gone for less than $10,000.
TMZ doesn’t have much competition when it comes to obtaining such footage: It pays for this kind of content, and mainstream news organizations usually don’t. The outlet — which was created by attorney Harvey Levin in 2005 and acquired by Fox Entertainment last year — never discloses or comments on how much it pays for videos.
Many fans were surprised to hear the number was so low. Presumably, whoever leaked the video risked their very lucrative job, and $10,000 might not be enough to take that gamble for some.
Either way, there’s a good chance the mysterious leaker will need that $10,000 to support himself once the Warriors figure out his identity.
