“If two grown men are having words, and one pushes the other, you’ve got to assume that something might happen,” Damian Lillard says of the Draymond Green-Jordan Poole scuffle.
Damian Lillard, the Blazers’ star, discusses the Draymond Green-Jordan Poole scuffle
Following his physical altercation with Golden State Warriors teammate Jordan Poole, Draymond Green has emerged as Public Enemy No. 1.
Most people believe he brought it on himself after delivering an unwarranted sucker punch to one of his younger teammates.
Draymond Green has thrust himself to the forefront of the media spotlight with only a few days until the start of the NBA season.
Since a report, and later a video, detailing his attack on Jordan Poole in practice this week, Draymond’s name has been on all the networks, as analysts from all over the country debate and discuss the conduct that has jeopardized his future with the team.
Portland Trail Blazers superstar Damian Lillard, on the other hand, is attempting to remain as objective as possible in all of this.
To begin, Dame attempted to downplay the incident, claiming that it is a common occurrence among teammates (via Blazers reporter Sean Highking):
“It’s unfortunate. when you spend as much time with your teammates as we do, you want it to be positive and you want it to be respectful,” Lillard said. “But I’d be lying if I said there hasn’t been a lot of heated moments that I’ve seen in my career. I’m sure it happens in every locker room. You never wish to see that.”
To be completely obvious, Lillard does not encourage Green’s actions. It’s “unfortunate,” he said, that the situation was resolved the way it did.
However, Lillard also mentioned that the fact that the video of the incident was leaked to the public is another major issue that the Warriors will need to address:
“I think what happens behind closed doors should stay that way,” he said. “It should be handled correctly, but it should stay behind closed doors. So I thought the fact that video came out is wrong.”
Lillard then attempted to make sense of the incident. Dame thinks that both Green and Poole will be left with disappointment and maybe one or two major lessons learned as a result of this incident:
“On the altercation itself, as wrong as it was, I think if you’re a boxing fan, in boxing, they say you’ve got to protect yourself at all times. I think Draymond, who I know pretty well, probably walked away from that situation saying, ‘I probably shouldn’t have done that to my teammate.’ And Jordan Poole’s probably walking away thinking, ‘When I push somebody, I should know that something may come back. That’s it. It’s an unfortunate situation.”
Eventually, Lillard talked how the public reacted to the affair:
“I think it’s become a thing in the NBA where it’s like, ‘Ain’t nobody gonna do nothing,’” Lillard said. “Everybody’s always quick to say that. So then when somebody does something, it’s the end of the world. Like I said, it’s unfortunate. But if two grown men are having words, and one pushes the other, you’ve got to assume that something might happen. That’s just how I saw it.”
Damian Lillard on the Draymond Green-Jordan Poole altercation: pic.twitter.com/aJmnQdjdt8
— Sean Highkin (@highkin) October 8, 2022
For what it’s worth, Draymond Green has previously been linked to a move to the Blazers. Apparently, Lillard was “obsessed” with the prospect of working with Dray. That’s all I’m going to say about it.
