Why the Warriors’ Decision on Draymond Green Is Not Surprising

Golden State choosing to keep the forward in its midst was the best path forward.

Draymond Green will soon be back in uniform and back on the court, a Warrior in good standing, albeit with glaring caveats: his reputation tarnished, his bond with teammates fractured. But none of it, it seems, irrevocably. And so the NBA’s defending champions will bring their star forward back into the fold and begin some sort of healing process while simultaneously chasing another title.

Green will be fined, but not suspended, for punching teammate Jordan Poole last week—an incident that rocked the franchise and shocked the public when video of the punch leaked, a moment Steve Kerr called “the biggest crisis that we’ve ever had” in his eight-plus years as coach. He invoked that description Tuesday night, even as he explained that the franchise would not suspend Green for creating the crisis in question.

“We feel like we have a great feel for our team,” Kerr said in a press conference following a preseason victory over the Trail Blazers. “We’ve got a lot of continuity on this team. Bob [Myers] and I know our players extremely well. And we feel like this is the best way, after assessing everything, for us to move forward. It’s never easy. No matter what decision you make in a situation like this, it’s not going to be perfect.”

To much of the public, and much of the league, the decision not to suspend Green might be as stunning as the video itself. To understand it, you have to go back to Nov. 12, 2018; and to June 10, 2016; and to Feb. 27, 2016. You have to recall that dramatic mid-game blowup with Kevin Durant that threatened the 2018–19 season, and the mid-Finals suspension that derailed a championship in ’16 and the nasty locker-room blowup with Kerr four months earlier that rattled the Warriors to their core.

You have to consider all the other dates and tirades and scuffles and flare-ups that have taken place over the last decade—even if they never became public—because, well, there surely have been many more than we know about.

The Warriors long ago accepted this reality: that Draymond Green, for all his intelligence and thoughtfulness and basketball brilliance, is a walking powder keg. And that, sometimes, the keg will ignite without warning, and they’ll all have to contend with the fallout. It’s a bargain the franchise struck with itself, because Green is also a remarkable talent, a passionate, selfless teammate and, well, a flat-out winner.

A week after punching teammate Poole during practice, Green has been fined by the team for his actions :: Paul Rutherford/USA TODAY Sports

There are four championship banners hanging here at Chase Center attesting to all of that. And those four banners, as much as anything else, explain the decision Kerr announced late Tuesday night. The Warriors are chasing a fifth title, and they need Green to get there. They need to hold him accountable, sure, but they also need not to alienate, ostracize or otherwise crush his spirit, knowing that when his passion is properly directed, it’s one of their greatest assets.

And so Green will pay some undisclosed fine, but he will not miss next Tuesday’s ring ceremony, or the game that night, or any game that follows, as a result of last week’s punch. Green will return to practice Thursday, then play in the Warriors’ preseason finale Friday night. Team officials are well aware this decision might not please a lot of fans and frothing pundits.

“Any criticism that we face here is fair,” Kerr said, noting that Green is a player who “lives on the edge” and occasionally crosses it. “He crossed the line with Kevin [in 2018], and he crossed the line the other night in a worse fashion, much worse fashion. I would hope that everybody would respect the fact that we feel like we know Draymond and this entire group very well. And that, while this is not an easy decision, we feel like this is the best decision we can make going forward. And I trust Draymond that he will, you know, stay on that edge and not go over.”

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Of everything Kerr said in his 18-minute press conference, nothing was more critical than the part about knowledge and trust. No one knows this Warriors locker room— or Green, specifically—better than the Warriors themselves. Kerr and Myers have been navigating these minefields for nearly a decade. Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson have spent nearly their entire careers with Green, through incredible highs and devastating lows. And the Warriors didn’t come to this conclusion without every last player, coach and executive weighing in—including Poole himself.

After all the meetings and side discussions—between coaches and players, executives and players, players and players, and most critically, between Poole and Green—team officials concluded the best path forward was to keep Green in their midst.

A suspension was “on the table,” Kerr said, but ultimately not the best option.

“This was really a group decision, with our key guys, with our veteran players who had been around for a long time,” he said. “They needed to be ready to move forward, and they're ready.”

Poole has not spoken publicly since the fight. Curry, Thompson and the Warriors’ other veterans did not play Tuesday night and were therefore free from media obligations. Their specific thoughts on the matter will surely come in the next few days, but Kerr made it clear that all the franchise’s most important voices were in agreement.

Reasonable people can debate the efficacy or necessity of a suspension. We can parse definitions of “accountability” and “justice” and make strained analogies to our own workaday lives. But the only person owed justice is Poole, and he apparently is ready to forgive and move on. The only ones owed accountability are Green’s teammates, and they will surely impose that accountability in other ways, as they have for years.

There are no guarantees that a stiff punishment would prevent another untimely (or violent) outburst. There are no guarantees this swift gesture of forgiveness will calm the waters. There are no guarantees the Warriors can make another title run while repairing all these frayed bonds.

But no one knows the Warriors better than the Warriors. And the Warriors are pretty sure they won’t secure a fifth banner next June without the unbridled passion of Draymond Green. So they will welcome him back and hope for the best, knowing that more often than not, they’ll get it—and that any risks are worth the rewards.