Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green has built a laundry list of controversial on-court moments across his 12 NBA seasons.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr appeared on “The Dan Le Batard Show” on Tuesday and admitted that the worst situation, in his mind, was when he got into a fight with then-teammate Jordan Poole during an October 2022 practice. The event escalated enough to where Green hit the guard in the face and the team fined the veteran four-time champion.
“Well there’s a lot of examples,” Kerr said, when asked what is the angriest he’s been at Green. “For sure, the Jordan Poole incident. … (Draymond and I are) both kind of maniacal competitors and we’ve lost our minds with each other, during games over whatever, disagreements about strategy. But he crossed the line with Jordan and he knows it. He knew it immediately, and it made that season incredibly difficult for everybody. That story has been regurgitated many times but, yeah, that’s probably the time I was most angry and there’s your headline.”
The four-time All-Star has long had a reputation for being one of the more scandalous players in the NBA for his list of questionable, if not dirty, antics on the court.
Green’s knack for finding trouble continued following his incident with Poole, as the former Defensive Player of the Year stomped on the chest of Sacramento Kings All-Star big man Domantas Sabonis during an April 2023 playoff game, earning a one-game suspension.
The 2012 second-round draft pick made headlines again in November when he was suspended five games after grabbing Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert and putting him in a chokehold during an on-court tussle. Less than one month later, Green struck Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nurkic in a December contest, leading to an indefinite suspension.
The Michigan State product ended up missing 12 games before being reinstated and four more during his ramp-up to return to action.
Green revealed in January that during his time away from the game he considered retiring, but after a “long, great conversation” with Adam Silver, the commissioner talked him out of it.
