SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green apologized to the team a day after fighting with teammate Jordan Poole during practice, general manager Bob Myers said.
Poole practiced Thursday while Green didn’t, and Myers said any potential discipline would be handled internally. Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Green will be away from the team again Friday and expects him to return Saturday.
Myers said he doesn’t anticipate Green missing any games for Wednesday’s altercation.
“Everybody’s fine,” Myers said, saying the team is lucky nobody got hurt. “Look, it’s the NBA, professional sports, these things happen. Nobody likes it. We don’t condone it, but it happened.
“Draymond apologized to the team this morning, Jordan was there in the room, I was there in room with the team, the coaches, the players and we heard that.”
The Athletic first reported the scuffle, saying Green struck Poole. Myers said “space is good” regarding Green not practicing and going home after he addressed the team.
The fiery Green, a four-time NBA champion and four-time All-Star, has long been considered the emotional leader of the Warriors. He’s been willing to get into it with his teammates when he feels appropriate. There is a “tough love” element to every team, Myers said, noting “Draymond is absolutely a leader on this team.”
“It’s unfortunate, I’m not going to deny it,” Myers said. “It’ll take some time to move through, but we’ll move through it and move forward and I’m confident that we will. We’ve got a good team, we’ve got good leadership, we’ve got some guys that have been here a long time.
“This isn’t our first thing that’s happened, first sense of adversity, we’ve been through some of this before. Don’t like going through it, but it’s part of the NBA and it’s part of sports.”
Poole’s representatives are in discussions with Myers about a contract extension ahead of the Oct. 17 deadline, one day before the defending NBA champions open the season at home against the Lakers.
Both Poole and Andrew Wiggins insisted on media day their unsettled contract situations were not the top thing on their mind going into the preseason. Myers said he didn’t consider this dustup as something that was about “who’s getting paid and who isn’t, I don’t sense that.” Kerr praised Poole’s spirit throughout camp.
Golden State is back in the Bay Area this week and on the practice floor in San Francisco after a pair of preseason wins in Japan against the Wizards.
Myers doesn’t expect the incident to have a lingering effect on his team.
“First, like anything you want to make sure everybody’s OK, that’s the No. 1 thing,” Myers said. “After that, nobody likes these things, so how do you move forward? There’s a process to these things, there’s apologies, there’s time.”
