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Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, from left, Stephen Curry #30 and Draymond Green #23 pose for photos during an Olympic Gold Medal recognition ceremony before their preseason game against the Sacramento Kings.
The dynasty of the Golden State Warriors over the past decade-plus has been nothing short of historic. Yet still, even four championships later, the franchise went through its fair share of controversies and dissension on its way to success.
One of the most notable moments from the Warriors’ run was the short tenure of Jordan Poole in the Bay Area. In 2022, the guard from Michigan got into a fight with Draymond Green during practice, an interaction that was caught on camera and circulated online.
Speaking on the incident years later, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr confirmed what many thought in the moment.
“It destroyed our team. I tried my best to handle it, but when the video made it out… the video was much more difficult than the fight itself,” Kerr said in an interview with The Leadership Playbook. “And we were trying to repair that all season long and we never really were able to.”
Poole stayed a member of the team during their 2022-23 championship-defending year, but was traded to the Washington Wizards before the 2023-24 season.
Steve Kerr On The Green, Poole Fight
Green has since apologized for the incident in which he punched Poole, but on-court indications show the two remain relatively distant from each other.
Green, a former Defensive Player of the Year with a total of 20 career suspensions, has never been one to back down from a dispute. That’s what happened with Poole in 2022, and though many found the video and interaction shocking, Kerr said a fight between players on an NBA team is somewhat common.
“It happens. There’s usually, I would say, two or three fights a year on our team, in basketball,” Kerr said. “It’s not like the normal rules of society. You can’t go to work in the office and punch somebody. In basketball, you can kind of do that and it’s okay.”
In Green’s latest instance recalling the fight, he said “he hoped to ‘move on’ but realized he had done serious damage to his relationship with Poole,” according to Bleacher Report.
“So there are things that happen all the time that are so difficult,” Kerr added. “You do your best, you communicate with the players, you try to mend fences, but some things are insurmountable.”
Green also made another apology in January, after Poole said he ‘loves most of the guys over there.‘ Green again expressed his regret, and his urge to move on from the situation.
Stephen Curry has rarely discussed the incident. Shortly after the video of the fight circulated online, the NBA’s all-time three-point leader defended Poole and said Green’s actions weren’t justified.
The relationship between current Warriors players and Poole remains somewhat strained, as publicly, all have praised their former teammate, yet later videos and interactions tell a different story.
The Golden State Warriors In 2025
The fight, along with Green and Kevin Durant‘s infamous argument in a game against the Los Angeles Clippers, are likely the biggest messes the Warriors have had to address over their historic run.
But with all parties involved in those incidents now seemingly in a better place, another situation has been brewing in the Bay Area that, so far, has been a major cause for concern.
Jonathan Kuminga remains a restricted free agent and has been in a contract standstill with the Warriors for months. While reporting and updates have come frequently on the ever-developing situation, the two parties have made little progress in either having the wing player resign and stay or be traded away.
Recent reporting from Anthony Slater and Shams Charania of ESPN gave more insight as to where the two parties stand. But as of now, both Kuminga and the Warriors franchise have yet to come to any concrete solutions.
Kuminga’s lack of action on his future has also been a roadblock for Golden State to sign any other players this summer. While Al Horford, De’Anthony Melton, and Gary Payton II expect to join the team for next season, as long as Kuminga remains unsigned, the Warriors will stay the only team yet to add or resign a player this offseason.
Though Kuminga has been the talk of the franchise, Curry recently made headlines for a positive reason as it relates to Warriors fans.
While making an appearance at a charity event in Baltimore, Curry looked like he’d spent much of his offseason in the weight room, in hopes of bulking up to help lead the team to a fifth title since 2015.
Eli Gregorski is a sports journalist covering the NBA for Heavy Sports. He has years of sports writing experience covering the NBA, NFL, college football and basketball, international soccer, and Formula One. He graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder, where he was the assistant sports editor for the award-winning CU Independent student publication. More about Eli Gregorski
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