Poole, now with the Washington Wizards, still can’t completely get away from the shadow of his old team. And this beef will make Washington’s and Golden State’s first meeting very interesting.
For us as Washington Wizards fans, the biggest story of the season is how will young players like Bilal Coulibaly develop? And will the veteran duo of Kyle Kuzma and Jordan Poole be part of a contending Wizards team sometime in the future? All legitimate questions.
But you, thick-and-thin Wizards fans, are in the minority. For the NBA world at large, the biggest story around a Wizards player involves his time BEFORE he came to D.C. altogether. That’s because Poole left his previous team, the Golden State Warriors on less-than-ideal terms, largely from Draymond Green punching him in practice before the 2022-23 NBA season, and Green’s apparent reluctance to make amends.
Green isn’t making things any easier.
After Golden State beat the Sacramento Kings last Wednesday 102-101 thanks to a last second shot by Klay Thompson, Green praised the chemistry the team has again. And referred to last year’s chemistry as “horseshit.” You can watch the video in the X post below.
Last year was horses–t. It was hard to come to work.”
Draymond didn’t mince words comparing last year’s chemistry to this year’s team pic.twitter.com/1uhIcWgig7
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) November 2, 2023
Much of what Green said is true. The core players of Golden State’s team: Stephen Curry, Thompson, head coach Steve Kerr and Green have spent many year’s together. But by saying last year’s chemistry was bad while things are better this season, Green is also implying there was “addition by subtraction.” And Poole is one of the most notable players who was there last season who is not there anymore this season.
Kerr, being the class act he is, was on KGMZ-FM on Thursday for an interview (h/t to Brad Botkin of CBS). In that interview, Kerr said the blame for the Warriors’ 2022-23 season was shared among the team, not just on Poole.
Kerr says it’s unfair to blame Jordan Poole for last year’s struggles
Full response ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/ds0b09MNUK
— 95.7 The Game (@957thegame) November 2, 2023
The Wizards will not play the Warriors until Dec. 22 on the road at Chase Center. Until then, this beef will likely be the Wizards’ biggest storyline of the first couple months of the 2023-24 NBA season.