The Golden State Warriors won the 2022 Championship by defeating several solid teams in the league, including the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals.
Steph Curry was clearly a star of the team.
Curry’s Big 3, Clay Thompson and Draymond Green all provided experience in their team’s run, as well as being stolen by great performances.
Another player that was important for the Warriors team in 2022 was Jordan Pool. He made a leap and became an important scorer for them.
He averaged 17.2 points in the 2022 playoff run and it looked like the Warriors had found another piece to expand their dynasty.
However, only a few months later, things got worse as Pool and Green got caught up in discussions during practice, leading to the four-time NBA champions throwing punches at the shooting guard.
Greene spent several days away from the team and was also fined by the organization for his actions.
Pool and Green shared a locker room for a year since the incident, but things were never the same in the two.
Their issues began to affect the Warriors, losing to the LA Lakers in the second round of the 2022-23 playoffs.
Pool was eventually traded to Washington Wizard in 2023. He struggled in his first season as a star on the team, but returned to his best in the 2024-25 season.
Richard Jefferson believes that the situation is supposed to happen, seeing both the two years have been separated from the incident and the players’ actions since.
He said: “I don’t know the Jordan Pool in that space, but we saw Draymond’s struggle, “Hey Jordan, we have to clean this up, you’re a talented player, you have the ability to become an All-Star, but you have to be the leader first.”
“So the fact that I saw both actions over the course of two years was not a teammate that hinted at conflict.”
As a player, Pool and Green were essential to the Warriors’ roster because of what they both brought to the team.
The warriors in 2022 had to do that for the pool to get punches from the bench and take some weight off the shoulder of Curry, but Green was crucial to the whole game.
But the pool is a fun person and even when playing, he likes to joke. Meanwhile, Greene becomes a completely different person when he is in court, and Jefferson believes it could cause the situation.
“This is a two or three years of deleted thing. I’ve never heard of the situation from Jordan Pool. I’ve heard it from Draymond, but everyone has their own version of the story, and then there’s the truth.
“You’re no longer a teammate. You were the champion together. I think you saw Draymond continue to navigate some of his frustration in other ways,” the former NBA player said.
“I’ve seen Jordan Pool get out of his pocket on the basketball court, and that should be checked even when he’s with the Wizard. Some of the things he’s been doing on the court are the behavior of basketball players that need to be checked.
Since the incident, Green has made many comments about the punch, but Pool remains silent.
The 26-year-old moves to the Pelicans in New Orleans in the offseason, where he meets his new team three times with Green.
He faced the Warriors while he was with the Wizard, but now Pool is back in the Western Conference, so there is a possibility that a rivalry could form due to his history with Green.