Draymond Green: ‘I hurt someone because I was in a place of hurt’

SAN FRANCISCO — Before he landed the punch. Before he ever arrived at the Golden State Warriors practice that morning, star forward Draymond Green was already in a very dark place mentally.

Meeting with the reporters Saturday after announcing he was taking a leave from the defending NBA champs, Green didn’t not try to defend his punch of teammate Jordan Poole.

He was open and honest, never ducking a question during the 28-minute-plus interview.

Green says he needs to work on some personal issues. After all, trash talking is in the street fabric of the NBA. It seldom degenerates to a physical altercation, particularly among teammates.

“Hurt people, hurt people,” Green said. “And I was in a very contentious space that morning of dealing with some things that is very near and dear to me. And I hurt someone because I was in a place of hurt. And for that, I’ve apologized and you know you apologize with words but ultimately your actions show your apologies. So I’ve apologized with my words to my team, to Jordan and now I will allow my actions to show my apologies moving forward.”

While saying it wasn’t an anger management issue, Green said he keeps his emotions bottled up inside and that can cause problems when they bubble over.

“Like I said before I have an issue with how to let my emotions out,” he said. “Quite frankly, I like to keep my emotions in because I don’t like to give people the power over my emotions. So I internalize them… I’m not saying that it’s something want to change, I want to keep my emotions to myself. But what I do want to change and I do need to work on is how they end up coming out.”

“And how do you let them out without them coming out in a way that ultimately you regret. And this is one I sincerely regret.”

Word that Green had punched Poole in the face during practice leaked out late Wednesday. Then, on Thursday, the Warriors confirmed the report, while also stating that punishment would be handled internally. However, a video of Green punching Poole was leaked on Friday, adding more fuel to the fire of the initial altercation.  

Golden State’s management has launched an investigation into how the video of the closed practice became public.

“I watched the video 15 times maybe more,” Green said. “Because when I look at the video, I’m like ‘Yo, this looks awful. This looks worse than I thought it was.’ Pathetic. Then I had to step back and realize this video was released this way to look that way..,I am very thankful to the Warriors organization for taking it as serious as they have and launching an investigation.”