Dubs’ Draymond Green reportedly refused peace dinner with Jordan Poole

Reporter Logan Murdock has this detail in the fifth paragraph of his profile on the new Wizards guard, which includes other tidbits about how Poole’s camp was unhappy with how the Dubs, and Green, handled the preseason incident. He also reached the conclusion many others came to after the season ended: The punch, along with the subsequent lack of punishment toward Green, threw everything out of whack for Golden State last year.

It’s now known that the fallout led to Poole getting sent east in exchange for Chris Paul, as the Dubs decided sticking with Green was preferable to keeping the 24-year-old guard, whose playoff struggles were a big part of last season’s failed championship campaign. But until Murdock’s Thursday revelation, it was never really clear what exactly the Dubs tried to do to fix things in the moment, beyond levying a relatively meager fine and hoping that would send enough of a message.

What Murdock doesn’t get into is why Green didn’t want to partake in the peace dinner. Green declined to comment to the Ringer for the story, and his last major comment on the punch came by way of his own podcast, where he gave a rather lame justification for it, claiming Poole said “stuff that you don’t say amongst men” without providing specifics.

The profile does indicate Poole wants to move on from all this. The story begins with Poole passing on a question about Green and telling Murdock, “You know I wasn’t going to answer nothing along the lines of [that].” What he does say is that he is looking forward to being the “God-fearing” face of the Wizards franchise this season and that he worked out with Steph Curry and Klay Thompson in August for one last hurrah. Murdock also talked to former Warrior Kevin Durant, who said Poole has reached out to him over the years seeking NBA advice despite the fact that the two never overlapped in the Bay Area. 

At this point, any sort of proper resolution between Green and Poole seems pretty unlikely — especially because one of the best possible mediators doesn’t think he could do much to help, Murdock reported.

“There’s always that hope,” Curry told the Ringer about possibly fixing things between Green and Poole. “But it’s two grown men that can figure that out. They know where we stand on it and how I see both of them individually. So, will I facilitate something? Probably not, but I definitely hope that there can be some kind of, maybe, meeting each other where they’re at. Because life is short.”

Life is short, but NBA careers are shorter. With that in mind, Poole’s approach of moving on is probably his best course of action.