Draymond Green States Potential Jordan Poole-warriors Reunion A ‘non-issue'

Draymond Green states potential Jordan Poole-Warriors reunion a ‘non-issue' originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Three seasons and 11 games have passed since Jordan Poole has played for the Warriors.  

Despite the ugly conflict with Draymond Green that precipitated his exit, Poole said after the Warriors’ win Monday over his New Orleans Pelicans that he would consider returning “home” to the team that drafted him in 2019.  

Considering the nature of that incident, it would be fair to ask if Green would have an issue playing alongside Poole again. 

“I have no issue with that at all,” Green said in the locker room after the game, according to Bay Area News Group’s Joseph Dycus. “I will never stand in the way of this organization thinking they can better themselves.”  

“The issue will never be me. Ever.” 

Seeing those last two quoted sentences in social media posts, many fans speculated that Green was inferring Poole would be the one to have an issue with a reunion. 

Green, on his podcast “The Draymond Green Show,” clarified his postgame comments, pointing out that any decision regarding a Poole-Warriors reunion comes down to the organizations, and not himself. 

“What those comments were — they asked me about Jordan Poole’s comments … and they were asking me, like, how did I feel about that,” Green recalled on his podcast. “And I told them I don’t have a problem with that at all. Number one, I don’t make decisions here. I’m a basketball player. I don’t decide my own future here, let alone someone else’s …  

“Number two, what I said was also, I’m an adult. So if you’re asking me as if that’s going to be a problem for me, that’s no problem for me … I’m not someone who walks around with a grudge.” 

The San Francisco Standard’s Danny Emerman provided another quote from Green from Monday night, in which the Warriors veteran further explained how he has moved on from the incident, and that the decision around Poole returning does not fall on him. 

“We had our issue that I f–ked up on, and that’s that,” Green said, according to Emerman. “But I’m not one to hold grudges, I’m not one to sit around and try to damper something for someone else. So if that’s what he wants, I understand that.  

“But that’s not a Draymond issue. That’s a Golden State Warriors decision.” 

In his podcast, Green provided an example of a similar situation, saying that Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy asked him about his thoughts on trading for then-Washington Wizards guard Chris Paul. Green recalled that he told his GM that the two did not see “eye-to-eye” and that he couldn’t say that he was “very fond of him at all.” 

“I told Mike then — I said, ‘Mike, I wouldn’t stand in the way of what you think this team needs, or what can help make this team better,'” Green recalled telling Dunleavy. “I would never stand in the way of that. And so, same went for last night when I was asked that … 

“… If they were like, ‘Man, we’re bringing Jordan Poole in’ — whether that’s a trade, whatever it is — and I was still [with the Warriors], that’s a non-issue for me.” 

Green seems to be abstinent when it comes to personnel decisions at this point in his career, and that extends to any possible reunion with Poole.

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