Draymond Green, Steve Kerr not happy that fight video was leaked
Draymond Green watched Jordan Poole altercation video at least 15 times
>BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – JUNE 15: Golden State Warriors’ Draymond
Green (23) speaks before a practice session the day before Game 6 of the
NBA Finals at TD Garden in Boston, Mass., on Wednesday, June 15, 2022.
(Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
>BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – JUNE 15: Golden State Warriors’ Draymond Green
(23) speaks before a practice session the day before Game 6 of the NBA
Finals at TD Garden in Boston, Mass., on Wednesday, June 15, 2022. (Jose
Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
By SHAYNA RUBIN | srubin@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: October 8, 2022 at 2:21 p.m. | UPDATED: October 8, 2022 at
4:53 p.m.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2022/10/08/draymond-green-steve-kerr-not-happy-that-fight-video-was-leaked/

SAN FRANCISCO — The leaked video of Draymond Green punching Jordan Poole
in the face has been watched at least 25 million times on Twitter. Green
himself accounts for at least 15 of those views.

The video that dropped Friday morning showed Green charge, swing at and
jump on Poole as coaches and other players tried to pull them apart.

“I watched that video 15 times, maybe more,” Green said. “Because when I
watch the video, I’m like ‘Yo, this looks awful. This looks even worse
than I thought it was. It’s pathetic.’”

Green will remove himself from the team indefinitely — meaning he won’t
play in Sunday’s preseason game against the Lakers. When he gets back
he’ll have to repair the eroded trust between him, Poole and his
teammates. That healing starts now. But the Warriors have issues that go
beyond Green’s punch.

Make no mistake, they’re concerned about how the video got out to the
public. The ramifications of this video leak is detrimental to the team,
too.

>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 8: Golden State Warriors head
coach Steve Kerr answers questions to reporters during a press
conference after practice at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on
Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

“In 32 years I’ve probably seen 20-plus fistfights at practice,” said
Kerr, who himself was on the other end of a Michael Jordan punch in
practice during the 1995 Chicago Bulls season.

“That should not make it out beyond the walls of our practice facility.
And it did. That’s the problem. We have to get better as an organization.”

Kerr wouldn’t address how a leaky organization erodes the trust within
the locker room, but was clear that morale takes a hit when they have to
dissect private matters that go public.

The team is investigating the source of these leaks. If anything,
closing some of these valves could preserve their reputation for
prospective free agents or any other player or coach who might view
those around the team as untrustworthy based on this incident alone.
Kerr also pointed to the leak of Andrew Wiggins’ vaccination status last
offseason as “unfair” to Wiggins and the team.

How others see the team is one thing. How these leaks impact the
Warriors’ morale as they try to win back-to-back titles is of pressing
concern, too. The season hasn’t begun and already there is turmoil made
messier by the fight going public.

“I’ve been in this league for 30-plus years, I’ve seen all kinds of
crazy stuff,” Kerr said. “When things are kept internally, really it’s
almost easy to handle them. It’s so much cleaner and smoother and you
can move forward. As soon as things are leaked, now all hell breaks
loose and that effects every single player, coach, but especially the
players. Because of that, because everything is out there, the players
are now having to deal with all the stuff. We’re having to answer all
these questions and it puts us in a very difficult spot.”

>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 8: Golden State Warriors’ Jordan
Poole during practice at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on
Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
Even an apologetic Green wanted to call out the leak.

“If I’m being 100 percent honest, I think it was (expletive),” he said.
“No other video leaks from practice. We’re working on our sets, they
don’t leak. When I’m coaching everyone up that doesn’t leak. I thought
it was bullshit that the video leaked.”

Green then alluded to the video being edited to not capture the entire
story because it did not include audio.

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“I had to take a step back and realize this video was released this way
to look that way. You know?” he said. “For whoever released the video. I
don’t know who released the video. I am very thankful to the Warriors
organization for taking it as serious as they have and launching the
investigation they have, because quite frankly they don’t have to.

“… But for whoever leaked the video, it did the same thing to me that
it’s intended to do to the world. It’s an audio-less video. It’s a video
that cuts to me walking right to him. The video serves the purpose that
it was supposed to serve. And it had me in the same mindset of like,
wow, this is terrible. This is awful… just because of the way the video
is cut up and released without audio. What I did was wrong. … regardless
of how the video was leaked, with audio or without audio, I was wrong. I
accept that.”

--
Shayna Rubin | General Assignment Sports Reporter
Shayna covers Bay Area sports for the Bay Area News Group. She covered
the Oakland A's from 2019 to 2021 and, most recently, the Golden State
Warriors' championship run in 2022. Shayna is a San Francisco native.