Jordan Poole holds a sizable piece of the Warriors’ future in his hands, though he didn’t ask for this. It was transferred to him when Draymond Green took offense at something Poole did or said, charged at Poole during Wednesday’s practice and punched him.
Poole didn’t volunteer for this. By all accounts, the fourth-year Warriors guard was engaging in normal training-camp practice byplay with Draymond, pushed Draymond when he was charged and then was levelled by the punch. It’s all there in the video, acquired by TMZ and released Friday morning.
But Poole wasn’t backing down in that incident. And knowing him, he probably isn’t backing down from this inescapable moment in the expanded days of the Warriors’ dynasty, either. Poole has credibility after playing such a key role in last season’s championship run. He’s also taken a lot of verbal heat from the veterans and flourished. He occasionally has talked back, but he’s used his rhetorical backbone constructively. Every time he walks into the media room, he jokes that he’ll only talk for 90 seconds and pretends he hates it up at the podium; but he always stays longer, is increasingly thoughtful with his answers and sometimes even seems to like it.