Jordan Poole returned to the Chase Center on Saturday night, this time with the Washington Wizards to face his former team, the Golden State Warriors.
Poole obviously has a lot of love for the Warriors and his time with the team—he was part of the 2022 NBA championship, for instance. However, his time with Golden State is often overshadowed by one incident with Draymond Green.
Green infamously punched Poole during a practice in 2022, which caused the Warriors to fine him. He was never suspended by the league, but he did take a leave of absence after the incident. Needless to say, tensions are probably still high between Green and Poole, especially based off a quote Poole told reporters on Saturday after the Wizards' 122–114 loss.
"Yeah, I love those guys over there. I love most of those guys over there," Poole said. "A really good group. A really good staff. Shout out to the fans. I saw a lot of 3 jerseys out there, a lot of JP3 jerseys, which is always really cool. I always get a lot of love [here]. I spent some good quality time here, and it's dope to see it appreciated."
After this comment was posted on X, Green responded to ESPN's Marc J. Spears's tweet saying "I really am sorry." It's difficult to read the comment as genuine or as a subtle diss back at Poole, but regardless, Green did publicly apologize to Poole, even over two years later.
Last month, Green appeared on the podcast with Penny Hardaway and expressed that punching Poole was "one of my biggest failures as a vet."
“One of my biggest failures as a vet was what happened with Jordan Poole," Green said at the time. "It took me to go through that failure with Jordan Poole, who was someone that came in and chose his locker to be next to me because he wanted to learn from me. [He] was someone that I would spend time with and that I would pour into, and I [f—–] it all up.”
It sounds like Green is still regretful of what happened back in 2022 with his former teammate. Maybe his apology on X on Saturday will help mend their broken relationship a bit.