After completing another stint with Team USA this summer, it’s back to the Warriors for Steve Kerr — which means back to coaching the beloved yet troublesome champion, Draymond Green. The iconic defensive star has done a lot to invoke criticism over the years but Kerr says that one incident in particular sticks out to him above the rest.
“The Jordan Poole incident,” said Kerr on the Dan LeBetard Show. “Draymond and I are a lot alike in a lot of ways and many people wouldn’t see that from the outside. But we’re both maniacal competitors and we’ve lost our minds with each other during games or whatever. But he crossed the line with Jordan. And he knows it, he knew it immediately, and it made that season incredibly difficult for everybody. That story has been regurgitated many times but that’s probably the time I was most angry.”If Kerr is right in one thing, he knows Draymond’s type. Besides sharing his competitive spirit, he played alongside the NBA’s most competitive athlete ever: Michael Jordan. Michael was as ruthless as they come and his tenacious, hard-ball approach helped him make one of the most successful and widely celebrated athletes in the world.
As coach of the Warriors, Kerr is now dealing with a similar type of “alpha spirit” in Draymond. While Green is not nearly the same player Michael was, his defensive efforts and competitive grit have been critical to the Warriors past four championships. Lately, however, he’s been crossing the line, and his worst offense was the scuffle with Jordan Poole.
What started as an ordinary practice session turned into a nightmare scenario for the Warriors when Green landed a punch on Poole and knocked him out cold in front of a gym packed with teammates, coaches, and staffers. When a video leaked online, the Warriors had no choice but to go public and things were never the same.
Poole became distant and his play began to decline across the board. Eventually, after the Warriors lost early in the playoffs, they had to trade Poole after his presence became borderline toxic in the locker room.
Before his fight with Draymond, Poole was coming off a championship season with the Warriors averaging 18.5 points, 4.0 assists, and 3.4 rebounds per game on 44.8% shooting. After the whole ordeal with Green, Poole never played with the same kind of joy again and you could tell that the chemistry was completely destroyed.
For Green to turn on his own teammate like that was completely uncalled for and it may have cost the Warriors the chance at another title. Ultimately, we’ll never know for sure but it was clearly enough to make Steve Kerr unforgettably angry and it was enough to break apart a core that had just won the championship.
After signing Green to a four-year, $100 million deal last summer it looks like the Warriors are not ready to give up on Draymond as the cornerstone of their defense and the heart behind their competitive identity. If he can just clean up his act and avoid any more altercations with his fellow players, he has a chance to validate the Warriors’ faith and complete an amazing comeback story.
But for head coach Steve Kerr, he’s done looking in the past. While he has been willing to address Draymond’s mistakes, he’s ready to focus on the action to come and what Draymond can do now to help the Warriors win games this upcoming season.
