On some computer or some hard drive somewhere, an unpublished Draymond Green podcast probably exists, collecting virtual dust. It will likely never reach the internet for public consumption. But at least the debut episode season two of “The Draymond Green Show” was released early Thursday morning.
Draymond spent the first 10 minutes of the podcast explaining why he went on a two-and-a-half month hiatus following his latest episode on Oct. 21, just a few days into the season. Green said he had some “contractual obligations” that contributed to the break, while revealing that he actually recorded a podcast “right after” punching Jordan Poole in a practice Oct. 5.
“We recorded an episode right after,” Green said. “I know everyone was looking for it and everyone wanted to hear it. Quite frankly, I wanted to allow you to hear what I had to say. I wanted to allow you a chance to kinda take a trip in my mind and just maybe understand more. When we recorded the episode, I hated the way I sounded. So we simply just didn’t release it.”
Two days later, Green published a pre-recorded Patrick Beverley episode with no mention of Poole. Two weeks after that, Draymond published an interview with De’Aaron Fox before the podcast feed went silent.
We’ve all heard our favorite hosts jump on the mic for “EMERGENCY PODS” whenever a big trade or big news breaks. It would have been interesting to hear an emotional Green in the heat of the moment, but listening to his comments, the unpublished podcast may have made the situation worse.
“I didn’t like my tone, I didn’t like the things I said, I didn’t like the way it came out,” Green said. “If you’re not careful, it almost comes off as unremorseful and distasteful. One hundred percent distasteful. But also fast. What do I mean by fast? Quite frankly, I’m not big into saying things or doing things, and then running to my show because it’s gonna get more ratings. I don’t really like that game. That’s the old media. I don’t play that game. I’m not very interested in that. I think there’s a time to speak. If the opportunity is there, I’m gonna speak. I’m never gonna shy away from a topic.”
Beyond that, Green said he wanted to account for the emotions of Poole and everyone else who was affected by the punch.
“People were affected,” Green said. “It wasn’t just something that affected me. When you do something that affects someone else, you can’t just take yourself into consideration, how you may feel, how it may benefit you, all of those things. For me, I’m like, ‘OK, Jordan has to deal with this, other people have to deal with this.’ The last thing I need to be doing about it is talking about it like it’s all fine and dandy.”
Three months later, this is only news because Green is talking about it. The Warriors have coalesced as a group the past few weeks, especially over the current 5-1 homestand while stars like Steph Curry and Andrew Wiggins are out.
Poole and Green – whose lockers are right next to each other – have been helping carry the Warriors through this stretch. Throughout the rest of the podcast, Green also gave his take on the current upswing with Golden State while taking stock of the rest of the league.
“This team is truly starting to build an identity,” Green said. “Every great team has an identity. When you walk in the gym, you know that team is gonna do X, Y and Z. We haven’t had that all year, we have not had an identity. It takes time to build an identity, some longer than others. I think we’re starting to build an identity and that is huge.”
