Draymond urges former Warriors teammate Poole to 'move on' originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Draymond Green is looking to move on from an unfortunate incident that happened more than two years ago.

Responding to comments made by former teammate Jordan Poole after the Golden State Warriors defeated the Washington Wizards 122-114 on Saturday at Chase Center, the Warriors' veteran forward apologized to Poole in a viral social media post on X. He tweeted that he was "sorry" for punching the young guard during a practice ahead of the 2022-23 NBA season.

Green explained why he chose to respond to Poole's comments with an apology during the latest episode of his podcast, "The Draymond Green & Baron Davis Show."

"I responded because, you know, it's been like three years," Green told Davis. "Like, let's move on. Let's move on. We should move on. I'm really sorry. It's kind of like asking for sympathy. They've been trying to make me the bad guy, go ahead, man. That's it. I'm sorry. , I shouldn't have hit him, but it happened, let's move on.

"I even apologized to his parents. One time his dad disappeared online and I hit him back because I was like, 'Dude, why did you disappear?' I actually didn't like that. 's myself, because I wasn't even involved. I kind of let him get out of my square a little bit because I had said what I said."

Green recalled what Poole said and did to him in the ring during pre-fight practice and how he handled it differently.

"I'll go back and forth on it, like, some days I'll be in between, like 'Yo, I know I'm wrong, but you can't call a guy a bad name and then push him Instead of either getting hit," Green shared. "Sometimes I sit in those two spaces. The answer is probably somewhere in the middle, like I shouldn't have knocked him down like that, if I should have restrained him, it's just a natural reaction. So the reality is I should probably limit him or something like that."

After a disappointing 2022-23 season with Poole and the Warriors, the young guard was traded to the Washington Wizards later that summer in exchange for veteran guard Chris Paul.

Poole has since become one of Washington's cornerstone players and is currently having the best season of his six-year NBA career, averaging points (21.4), assists (4.7), steals (1.5) and three-point field goal percentage. Both set career highs. (40.2%) through 35 games.

That leaves Green wondering why his former teammate continues to breathe new life into the discussion surrounding the incident two seasons ago.

"I think with him, though, you can bring that back to yourself," Green explained. "When you do that, you get flashbacks to that moment. You just gotta keep going and keep pushing, man. You gotta let it go."

There is no doubt that the punch had a negative impact on the Warriors that season. Green himself admitted as much after the Golden State Warriors were eliminated from the NBA playoffs. However, the experienced striker now believes all parties need to move on.

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