Draymond Green has been to therapy. He's worked through some things, addressed some pent-up feelings of anger and insecurity. Now he has made it through to the other side, and you know what? He still kinda feels like he was justified in punching Jordan Poole back in 2022.
This is the only logical takeaway from Green's latest podcast episode, where he once again got into the infamous altercation. After the Golden State Warriors beat the Washington Wizards in an otherwise unmemorable game—save for the fact that Poole got a warm reception from the San Francisco crowd—Poole commented on his relationship with the Warriors locker room by saying "I love those guys over there," before immediately correcting himself: "I love most of those guys over there." Green, who truly cannot help himself, took the bait, tweeting in reply "I really am sorry." Green reiterated this sentiment on the podcast saying, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have punched him. But it happened. Let's move on."
For those unfamiliar with the backstory, back in the fall of 2022, a video of Warriors training camp leaked, showing Poole shoving Green and Green punching Poole in the face in response. Off the heels of the Warriors' last championship, the fight seemed to cast a long shadow over the subsequent season, which eventually ended in a loss in the conference semifinals and Poole getting traded to the Washington Wizards. If there was a bit of a struggle within the team over whether the organization would side with its young, budding talent or a member of its legendary core, the answer was made clear with the trade. In light of the team's vote of confidence, Draymond Green has been gracious and humble ever since.
Just kidding. If anything, the Warriors' support for Green seemed to have emboldened him to act out even more, like a teenager trying to find the line of what they can get away with. This indulgence of Green's shitheadedness from the Warriors and the league led to a series of violent flashpoints, the bulk of which were "punished" with barely escalating slaps on the wrists. Things came to a head though with the Jusuf Nurkic incident, at which point the situation had gotten out of hand. The league imposed an "indefinite suspension" that ultimately lasted 12 games, and the Warriors mandated he attend three weeks of therapy. And while three weeks is not exactly enough time to effect actual change, based on this recent podcast episode it seems Green did get something out of it—namely, new jargon he can use to feign remorse while reaffirming why he's actually in the right.
"I kind of go back and forth with this," Green told his cohost Baron Davis on his podcast, per ESPN. "I know I was wrong, but you can't call a man a B-word and push him and not get hit, either. So, I kind of sit in both of those spaces sometimes. Like, the reality is, the answer is probably somewhere in the middle, right? I shouldn't have knocked him out like that. If anything, I should have hemmed him up. It kind of was just a natural reaction. I think, for him, you are kind of bringing that back up on yourself. Like when you do that, you just bring up that moment back on yourself. You just got to move on and keep it pushing, man. Got to let it go."
Ah yes, the kind of shallow "it's really everyone's and no one's fault, and don't trigger me with your trauma while I'm holding space for moving on" explanation that everyone who does therapy for the online content comes up with to justify their own narcissism. Green apologizing without actually apologizing is a well-worn routine at this point, both with this Poole incident and with other ones, including running Kevin Durant out of town and assaulting various nutsacks up and down the league. But at least now he's got the therapy speak to explain why nothing is ever his fault. He and Aaron Rodgers would have so much fun together at one of those ayahuasca retreats.
