Kevin Durant sat down with ESPN and discussed the recent incident between Jordan Poole and Draymond Green, saying that he would call physical altercations between teammates at this level rare, recalling only one prior incident in recent memory of a teammate punching another teammate.
He would also wish his best to both Green and Poole for what they’re going through.
“It’s rare. It’s rare. I’ve been in the league 16 years, and I’ve never seen that until the other day on camera. You hear about it with MJ and you hear about it with Bobby Portis, but there’s nothing that’s happening every year. It’s very rare that something like that happens. It’s none of our business. But it happened to be part of our daily conversation because we’ve seen the videos. We’ve all got our opinions, but to be honest, mine’s don’t matter. It is what it is.”
“The No. 1 thing is protect yourself at all times. But as a teammate for Jordan — he’s a good kid — we don’t expect things like that to happen. And when you see something like that, you feel for a brother because it’s like that feeling of empathy of ‘If I’m in that moment, what do I do?’ And we don’t know because we’re not Jordan, we’re not Draymond. I pray that Draymond gets what he needs and JP comes back and stays focused and doesn’t allow anything to distract him.” (h/t ESPN)
KD has shared a locker room with Draymond and knows that these situations come up when you’re dealing with someone like Dray. However, KD also understands that nobody is better at getting serious about winning than Green, which is why he hopes that he can come back after having found whatever he needed to to be in a good headspace this season.
Will Jordan Poole Forgive Draymond?
While Draymond has been away from the team to get his mind right before the season begins, he was expected to have returned to the team today. Poole’s been playing in preseason and even stunned Kevin Durant with some of the moves he was pulling off on the court.
Poole reportedly didn’t want Green to get suspended for this issue. This indicates that Poole can either come to a resolution with Draymond himself over this or he has already done so and the pair are moving on. If that is the case, the Warriors can lock in for another season with a lot of wins. If this isn’t the case, this drama could be a massive distraction in Golden State.
