For the first time since Draymond Green decked him with a punch on Oct. 5 in practice, Warriors guard Jordan Poole addressed the media Sunday at Chase Center. While Poole spent most of his 15-minute press conference discussing the four-year extension he signed with the Warriors this weekend, he started off his session with a statement on the Draymond situation.
Poole said that Draymond was “professional” in his personal apology to the guard.
“We plan on handling ourselves that way," Poole said. "We're here to play basketball and everybody in our locker room and on our team knows what it takes to win a championship. We're gonna do that on the court. That's really all I have to say on the matter. We're here to win a championship and keep hanging banners.”
The 23-year-old’s message carried a similar business-like tone as Draymond’s. The 32-year-old veteran told reporters Thursday that their personal relationship is irrelevant beyond their ability to thrive as teammates.
“We both know how to play basketball,” Green said. “And that is the most important thing for us. We're paid to do a job and we're gonna come to do that job to the best of our ability. We want to continue to win, so we wanna do what we have to do to win. Everything else outside of that, No. 1, will be handled amongst us and, No. 2, it’s neither here nor there.”
So it appears that Poole and Green will co-exist as teammates, rather than focus on trying to be best friends.
A reporter asked Poole about previous comments where he labeled Green a “brother” and if they can get back to that level of friendship.
“If I said it, I meant it,” Poole said. “We’re teammates and the coaching staff, the organization, everybody knows what it takes to win a championship. When we get out there on that court, we got one common goal for 48 minutes.”
While Poole described the last two weeks as "long," he sounded more concerned about his contract negotiations.
"The main thing I was focused on is over with," Poole said.
The Warriors want to move on. We’ll have to see if anything between Green and Poole bubbles to the surface this season, but the franchise clearly wants to put this in the rear-view mirror.
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