Warriors star Draymond Green announces he will ‘step away from the team’ after sucker-punching Poole

Draymond Green has announced his decision to ‘step away’ from the Golden State Warriors for the coming days, at a hastily-arranged press conference in which he apologized for sucker-punching teammate Jordan Poole at a practice session.

It is unclear when Green will be back with the team despite the Warriors’ defense of their NBA title beginning at home to LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers on October 18. 

The video of Green’s punch was leaked Friday, with reports claiming that the Warriors are ‘pursuing every legal course of action’ to discover how the shocking footage got out.

In the wake of the clip being made public, Green decided to speak to the media – calling the leak ‘bulls***’ – while also apologizing to his teammate once more.  

‘Number one, I was wrong for my actions that took place on Wednesday, and for that I have apologized to my team, I have apologized to Jordan,’ he said. ‘I wanted to take that a step further with the event yesterday of the video leaking. 

‘There is a huge embarrassment that comes from that, not just from myself as the one that committed the action, but the embarrassment that Jordan has to deal with, that the team has to deal with, but Jordan’s family. 

The clip shows Draymond Green exchanging words with Jordan Poole along the baseline, before bumping chests with the smaller guard, who attempts to gently push the veteran forward out of the way. He then retaliates with a brutal sucker-punch to floor his teammate

‘His mother and father saw that video. Quite frankly, I know if my mother had seen that video, what her reaction, her next step would be. So I apologize to his mother and father.’

The short clip, which was initially sent to TMZ, showed an altercation between Green and his teammate Poole, with Green initially trying to square up Poole.

In response, Poole pushes Green away, before the latter then connects with a brutal sucker punch, which leaves Poole on the ground as staff and players wade in to calm the situation.    

Draymond Green addressed local Bay area media on Saturday following his sucker punch

‘I thought it was bulls***,’ Green added. ‘No other video leaked from practice… I thought it was bulls*** the video leaked.

‘What did I think of myself in the moment? I watched the video 15 times, maybe more. Because when I watch the video, I’m looking at the video, I’m like “yo, this looks awful! This looks even worse than I thought it was. It’s pathetic!” 

‘Then I had to take a step a back too, and realize this video was actually released this way, to look that way.

Green is stepping away from the team following the incident despite the imminent new season 

‘For whoever released the video, I don’t know who released the video. I am very thankful to the Warriors organization for taking it as serious as they have, and launching the investigation that they have. Quite frankly they don’t have to, they’re not obligated to launch an investigation for something I did wrong.

‘The video serves the purpose that it was supposed to serve and it had me in the same mindset of like “wow! this is terrible! This is awful!” And by the way, it is terrible, and it is awful. Like just because of the way the video is cut up and it’s not released with audio and all those things — what I did was wrong.’

More to follow.