After the Warriors beat Jordan Poole and the Wizards at Chase Middle final weekend, Poole’s feedback about how he loves “most of the guys over there” reverberated by Golden State’s locker room.
At the least they reached Draymond Inexperienced.
Inexperienced, who infamously punched Poole in a preseason observe earlier than the 2022-23 season, publicly apologized to Poole on the social media platform X, writing, “I really am sorry.”
The Warriors by no means recovered from the incident final yr, tanking their title protection effort. They traded Poole to Washington after that season, attaching a protected future decide to him for a yr of Chris Paul.
On his podcast, Inexperienced mentioned he thinks it’s time to place all of it behind them.
“I responded because it’s been three years, let’s move on,” Inexperienced instructed his co-host Baron Davis. “It was kind of like it was looking for some sympathy. Keep wanting to make me out to be the bad guy. Move on, bro. It is what it is. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have punched him. But it happened, so let’s move on. I even apologized to his parents.”
Inexperienced has apologized to Poole — and, as he talked about, his mother and father — a number of instances earlier than this occasion and has taken accountability. But he admitted he feels “kind of in between on certain days” when reflecting on what went down.
“You can’t call a man a b-word and push him and not get hit, either,” Inexperienced mentioned on the podcast.
“I shouldn’t have knocked him out like that,” Inexperienced mentioned. “If anything, I should’ve hemmed him up. Kind of was just a natural reaction.”
Poole has not often, if ever, straight commented on the punch however his relationship with Inexperienced was fractured.
The Wizards guard has had a bounce-back season, averaging a career-high 21.4 factors and 4.7 assists per recreation whereas capturing 40.2% from 3. Towards the Warriors, he poured in 38 factors on 12-for-25 capturing.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr mentioned he doesn’t spend a lot time fascinated with what might have been with Poole in Golden State, however roots for him.
“I love Jordan, and always love seeing him,” Kerr mentioned. “I want nothing but the best for him and the rest of his career. He deserves it.”
