The whole NBA has recently been focused on the physical altercation between Warriors stars Jordan Poole and Draymond Green. The video of the incident has recently gone viral on social media, and there’s no doubt that Green displayed unacceptable conduct by striking his teammate.
There have been some suggestions that incidents such as these are actually common in the NBA, but the footage is usually not leaked. NBA insider Marc Stein suggested that this sort of thing has happened in the league “at least a hundred times” prior to this incident between Draymond Green and Jordan Poole.
A punch like this happened in the NBA at least a hundred times before … including Michael Jordan clocking a teammate named Steve Kerr. What hasn’t happened before is video of the punch leaking to the world … which makes this a chapter unlike any these Warriors have faced.
Obviously, Stein uses the example of Steve Kerr getting punched by Michael Jordan to illustrate his point. That is quite likely the most prominent example of a player striking their teammate, simply due to Michael Jordan’s popularity. However, it seems as though there is a more recent example of a similar incident.
Richard Jefferson Says Two Of His 2016 Cavaliers Threw Punches At One Another
In a recent appearance on ESPN, Richard Jefferson spoke about Draymond Green’s altercation with Jordan Poole. During his segment, Richard Jefferson revealed that there was once a similar incident on the 2016 Cavaliers, where two players threw punches at one another.
This is about a job. We’re here to win championships. We’re here to make money. I’m not here to be your friend… as long as we win and as long as when I step between those lines I can count on you… You don’t have to like the people that you work with… There is ways to come back, there is ways to move forward.
These things happen. It happened in 2016 when we won a championship. There was an incident where there was punches thrown on our team. I’m not going to say between who, but that is something that happened.
It is clear that Richard Jefferson believes that a team can come back and move forward from a physical incident. The 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers ended up winning the championship, so clearly, things worked out for them.
Hopefully, the Golden State Warriors can follow the same route, and move on past this incident. It is unclear how that will happen, but it is obvious that the team needs to get past this in one way or another to find championship success in 2023.
