Why Draymond Green felt he needed to earn his voice back with Jordan Poole and his Warriors teammate

The punch.

The walking on eggshells.

The stomp.

The return.

Draymond Green has had arguably the most eventful playoff run thus far in what’s been a volatile, action-packed season for him and the Warriors. After serving a one-game suspension due to excessively stepping on the chest of Kings All-Star Domantas Sabonis in Game 2 of the Golden State’s first-round matchup last week, Green returned on Sunday afternoon and played a vital role in a 126-125 win over Sacramento that tied the series at 2-2. Green had 12 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists, a block and a steal in 31 minutes while coming off the bench, swarming Kings guards De’Aaron Fox and Malik Monk in the second half, playing his typical, be-everywhere, do-everything way.

GO DEEPER

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Green’s return to action started with a conversation with Steve Kerr following Game 3, asking the coach: “What do you think of me coming off the bench?” Green saw the offensive fluidity that Jordan Poole gave the Warriors in that game, and accepted a reserve role on Sunday to keep that going into a critical game. This has been the Draymond Green the basketball world has come to know: A selfless competitor whose competitive fire also comes out at teammates, rivals and officials alike.

After punching Poole in training camp in early October, Green understood his leadership role hung in the balance with these Warriors. Teammates sensed a more subdued Draymond, particularly in the opening couple of months of the season. Then the calendar flipped to 2023, and Green had an outburst on the sidelines in a loss in Chicago on Jan. 15 in which the four-time champion was challenging the coaching staff’s rotations.

Two weeks later, however, the moment of truth happened.

After a 129-117 home win over Toronto on Jan. 27, for the first time all season and since the training camp punch, league sources said Green verbally chewed out Poole in the postgame locker room. For a decade, Green’s value within the Warriors has been far beyond statistics, but more so judged by his presence, his genuine voice in the locker room and his intentions. So on this late January night, Green verbally came at Poole hard, demanding better decision-making and less pouting, according to those sources, who were granted anonymity so that they could speak freely. Poole accepted the words from Green, and sources say the Warriors’ leadership headed by Stephen Curry applauded and supported Green for speaking his mind.

This was a turning point for Green and for the Warriors. It came in the middle of a three-game winning streak, and five of seven victories. Green got all of his feelings out with Poole, it was well-received and it appears the parties haven’t looked back since the moment.

When The Athletic brought up the Jan. 27 locker room moment to Green recently, he smiled, shrugged his shoulders and asked, “You heard?”

“I do remember that moment,” Green told The Athletic. “So number one: We all know the situation. We all know what happened. And I felt like I had to earn my voice. A voice isn’t given. For me, I wanted to do things to earn that back, and not just say, ‘Oh, man, I’m Draymond and everybody going to listen.’ Maybe that works, maybe it doesn’t. But if it doesn’t, then you lose all respect, you lose everyone’s ear. For me, the first three, three and a half months of the season isn’t worth that. It isn’t worth the other side of it. I needed to earn respect and I needed to earn a voice. And not just because you’re Draymond, or Dray’, you’ve done this, you’ve done that in this organization and everyone’s just supposed to listen.’ S— don’t just work like that.

“I took a step back … three or four steps back, and just kind of let things play out. Let time heal all wounds. So let time heal the wounds while I’m working, putting my head down, going to work, putting my body on the line every single day, dive in and say something every now and then but don’t be too overbearing. But at that point in the season, it’s time to make a push. It’s time to make a run. And everyone accepts things better after wins than after losses. So it was an understanding that we were putting together some wins.

“That moment happened leading into the All-Star break … I felt like it was important to have that moment. But I also felt it had to be at the right time. We hadn’t put many wins together all year in a row, and so you try to feel out the right time. We were on a home stand, trying to put wins together. I feel that was the time that you try to reinsert yourself.

“And by the way, you may reinsert yourself right there and it’s not accepted. And if it’s not accepted, that’s on you. Take a step back again. But if it is accepted, it’s — all right, here we go, now we can start putting stuff together and we started to turn the corner. Now, you can feel it. Our team is here, we ready to go. That’s a perfect time.”

Green and the Warriors will have his future to work through in the offseason, with a $27.6 million player option providing several paths. League sources say the Warriors want to retain Green. Green averaged 8.5 points, 7.2 rebounds and 6.9 assists in 73 games this season, his highest points per game and games played marks since 2017-18. Several contenders across the league will value Green as a potential free agent in the offseason. But for now they’re locked in this remaining best-of-three series against the Kings.

Green went one-on-one with The Athletic after Game 1, right before all hell broke loose with him again, to discuss his value, leadership, an up-and-down Warriors season still alive with a championship opportunity, and much more.

I notice your basketball IQ during games, like when you’re staring down (Kings coach) Mike Brown in stoppages to see what he’s telling his team and which plays he’s calling. Do you feel your know-how and how much you bring beyond stats go undervalued?

I think it goes underappreciated. I think ultimately, it doesn’t really matter if someone appreciates it or not. I do know my teammates appreciate it, my organization appreciates it, and guys who understand the game of basketball appreciate it. Now I have an understanding that most won’t appreciate it because I know most don’t understand the game of basketball at a high enough level, and that’s okay. That’s what I try to do on my podcast (The Draymond Green Show) — I try to educate people on the game of basketball, trying to teach them more and more.

Because Pete Myers (former Warriors assistant coach) told me something as a rookie: Draymond, it’s your duty in this league to leave the game in a better place than you saw it. And so what does that mean, right? That’s a vague statement. But you end up learning how to make meaning out of it. So for me, it’s what can I do to leave this game in a much better space. That’s my teammates, other young players in the league. That’s fans. We all contribute to this game, and so how do you leave it in a better place? I try to help people further understand those things.

It’s not only me — I think there’s a lot of guys in this league who do things like that, and don’t necessarily get the notice. I just try to open people’s eyes to a different level of basketball.

When did you lose that desire for stats, and start going all in on the intangibles?

When KD (Kevin Durant) came to this team in ‘16. I’ve never really been one to think about the stats, per se, but when KD came to this team I was like: Yo, I just need to have an impact, I need to impact this game in whatever way I can. Period. Sometimes that may be 15 points. Sometimes that may be two points, 10, assists and 11 rebounds. Sometimes it may be two, four and six, right? It doesn’t matter. But you can feel the impact on the game when I’m in a groove.

Some of my best games I’ve ever had in my career was like two points, and yet you can feel the total impact on the game. So that’s what I try to focus on.

From a leadership perspective, do you feel you found yourself from that Jan. 27 moment with Jordan?

I feel like myself. I feel like I have my voice. And also understanding that I can’t stay that way forever, asking, ‘What’s the value in me?’ In the same breath, you can’t just jump back on people. I’ve tried to ease back and say things when I should and then at times when I feel like I need to say something, I still take a step back and understanding that, man … you see so many times in any form of leadership, whether it’s a CEO, whether it’s a coach, whether it’s a general manager, whether it’s a player, where people start to tune their voice out. I just didn’t want that to happen.

So I just knew — shut your mouth, go to work, say something if something needs to be said, but kind of take a backseat. And I think it’s played out well for us.

How does it feel when the message resonates?

It feels really good. And also, JP wants to win. The guy’s won his whole life. He’s a winner. He carried Michigan to wins, he’s gotten here and gotten a championship. And I want to win. At the end of the day, it boils down to: We are going to do what we have to do to win the game, and you work on everything else as you go.

There’s this topic of this team flipping the switch now that it’s playoff time. How do you feel about that and the overall momentum?

I feel like our momentum is starting to pick up. And it’s not necessarily like flip the switch on and off, but you do understand what it takes. You do understand the focus level that it takes. You do understand the intensity level, the physicality that it takes. And so, for us, I feel like we’re doing that now. I feel like we’re doing that on both ends of the ball, the offensive and defensive end.

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