The punch heard around the NBA now has a video behind it.
TMZ obtained the footage of Draymond Green punching Jordan Poole at Warriors practice. It looks like the two exchanged words before Green approaches Poole.
The guard then shoves the forward before Green throws a punch that connects with Poole’s face, knocking him against the wall.
ESPN reported the Warriors are taking “every legal course of action” to find out how the video was made public and that the franchise is “aggressively investigating” both the incident and the release of the video.
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Green sat out practice Friday, while Poole played. Warriors GM Bob Myers said that Green apologized to the team on Friday and any punishment for the controversial big man would be handled internally.
“It’s unfortunate, I’m not going to deny it,” Myers said.
“It’ll take some time to move through, but we’ll move through it and move forward, and I’m confident that we will. We’ve got a good team, we’ve got good leadership, we’ve got some guys that have been here a long time.”
The troubling video could increase the pressure on the Warriors to punish Green more harshly. It remains unclear what internal discipline he faces now.
Speaking to The AthleticMyers said Green will now need to “earn the respect of his teammates” and Poole.
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“Yesterday wasn’t a good moment,” Myers said.
“That’s the bottom line. It wasn’t. There are people in life that make mistakes, and don’t apologize or don’t earn your trust back. He always does that. I don’t think he likes putting himself in these spots. He’s in one. And I think he’ll find a way to earn the respect of his teammates and Jordan back. But that’s the work he has to do.”
The Athletic’s Sam Amick wrote that Green will now have to work not only to gain his teammates’ respect but also their trust.
“There’s a painful premise that Myers laid bare with his remarks: Green, a future Hall of Famer and one of the greatest Warriors players who ever lived, has lost the trust and respect of his teammates and must now begin the process of earning it back ,” Amick wrote.
“There’s just no way of denying the profound and harsh truth behind what he said. Yet even beyond all the nuanced context that comes with Green and his complicated relationship with the Warriors, there was an uncomfortable reality of this scuffle that simply cannot be ignored. “Green, who is nearly a decade older than Poole and listed as 36 pounds heavier, chose to swing on his much younger and much smaller teammate in a way that was seen internally as wildly unjustified. There is, it seems, a universal agreement on that much.”
— with the New York Post
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