Jordan Poole and Draymond Green’s animosity seems far from settled, and it was on full display during Monday night’s game between the Washington Wizards and the Golden State Warriors.
The tension between the two former teammates came to a head late in the second quarter. Jordan Poole, now a guard for the Wizards, hit a deep three-pointer over Draymond Green’s defensive contest.
Immediately after the shot, Poole made sure to dramatically point at Green, almost as if to remind him of what had just happened. Green, never one to back down from a taunt, fired right back at Poole when Warriors star Steph Curry answered with a three-pointer on the very next possession, pointing back at Poole with equal enthusiasm.
The imagery of Green taunting Poole for something Curry accomplished was undoubtedly humorous, but it also highlighted the lingering tension between these two players.
The bad blood between Poole and Green has its roots in their time together on the Golden State Warriors, and it seems that time has done little to heal those wounds.
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The duo were teammates for four years, from 2019 until 2023, and they reached the pinnacle of NBA success together by winning a championship in 2022.
However, their relationship took a significant nosedive after a highly publicized altercation during a Warriors practice before the start of the 2022-23 season. During that practice, Green infamously punched Poole in an incident that was caught on video and later went viral.
The fallout from that punch was significant; it not only became a major talking point for the remainder of the season but also irreparably damaged their relationship. Even Warriors owner Joe Lacob later confirmed that Green and Poole were never able to patch things up after that incident.
As a result, the Warriors opted to trade Poole to the Wizards in 2023, effectively ending his time in Golden State. But even after parting ways, both players have continued to take subtle, and at times not-so-subtle, jabs at one another through the media and social media.
Given the context of their fractured relationship, it is hardly surprising that tensions bubbled to the surface during Monday night’s game, their first head-to-head clash of the 2024-25 season.
The exchange of taunts between Poole and Green served as a reminder of their tumultuous history and the unresolved feelings that still seem to linger between them. While some might find humor in their pettiness, it is clear that both players still have a lot of animosity left over from their time as teammates.
For fans, the drama added an extra layer to an already exciting game, showing that even after moving on to different teams, old wounds are hard to forget.
Whether this ongoing feud will settle down in future matchups remains to be seen, but for now, Poole and Green seem content to let their rivalry continue to play out on the court.
