Getty Bob Myers of the Golden State Warriors.
It was a pretty standard offseason for the Golden State Warriors. They lost a few players (Otto Porter Jr., Gary Payton II, and Nemanja Bjelica), signed a couple (Donte DiVincenzo and JaMychal Green), and spent the summer celebrating their championship victory.
Sure, the constant contract talks put a bit of a damper on things, as most fans solely focused on the fact that Golden State likely won’t be able to pay all of their players. And based on recent events, those sorts of conversations may have affected the players.
As reported by Shams Charania of The Athletic, Draymond Green and Jordan Poole got into a physical altercation at practice, and Green will likely face repercussions. And just the other day, Warriors GM Bob Myers spoke out about the incident for the first time.
He noted that he “doesn’t think” Green will miss games. Myers also stated that he doesn’t think the fight was about who will get paid in the future.
“I don’t think was related to who is getting paid and who isn’t,” Myers said. “I don’t sense that. Make your own conclusions. Probably more important what players think on that than I think, but I don’t see it. I’ve actually seen a really good group… One of the best vibes we’ve had in my 12 years.”
That being said, Myers did provide a guess as to what caused the problems.
Myers Believes Trash Talk Caused Incident
As is the case with most teams around the league, practices can get competitive. Yes, everyone is on the same team in the end, but when players are competing against each other, tempers can often flare. And when Green is in the mix, that becomes even more true.
According to Myers, the incident between Green and Poole was likely rooted in trash talk.
“I didn’t hear anything different than that, and no one told me anything different than that,” Myers said. “It was not anything different than a normal bickering in a scrimmage, is what I was told.”
As the GM of the team, Myers obviously has a big role in deciding what the consequences will be for Green, so to hear him speak so lightly of the situation provides a pretty good indicator in regards to the seriousness of the situation.
But while Myers will make the decisions, the players were there when it happened, and one player, veteran Andre Iguodala, had some thoughts on the matter.
Iguodala Discusses Green/Poole Fight
The Warriors veteran took to Twitter to share his thoughts on the incident. However, he didn’t back one player or another. Instead, he defended both from the criticism they’d been receiving.
“What we not gone do is talk crazy about my young fella [Jordan Poole] … great character kid … miss me with all that other bs. . Straight from the ‘SOURCE’,” Iguodala tweeted about Poole.
As for Green, Iguodala tweeted, “And it’s family business with my bro @Money23Green too…”
It’s definitely an odd predicament to be in for Golden State, as we’re less than two weeks away from the regular season. However, from the way people within the organization are talking about it, it seems as though things should smooth over fairly soon.
