2023 was a little tense within the Warriors organization. They couldn’t win the 2023 title and apart from Draymond Green’s two suspensions this regular season, tensions came to a head between teammates earlier in the year. An altercation between Green and Jordan Poole led to the latter getting traded to the Washington Wizards. A lot of things went down in the background through it. However, Dray apparently still harbors feelings about what transpired. Though he’s spoken about the incident in the immediate aftermath, Green became more open about it on the latest episode of his podcast.

“I took JP under my wing, seeing him getting a contract and knowing I f**ked it up was one of the worst feelings, it was a life-changing moment and I f**ked it up. I don’t hide from my f**k-ups,” Green said.

Green and Poole’s friendship was born out of insane competitiveness pre-dating both their times as Dubs. Poole played college ball for the Michigan Wolverines, the historic rivals of the crosstown school Michigan State Spartans Green is an alum of. When the rookie arrived in 2019, Green drove up the rivalry by not even taking the name of the school in interviews. On the inside, he mentored Poole and was the proudest of his improvement season after season.

In his second year in the league, Poole had grown to 12 PPG on 43.2% shooting and 35.1% from the 3-point line. During the Warriors’ 2022 championship run, he averaged 18.5 PPG. Green had been vocal about how impressed he was with JP in the playoffs. He made a good case for a max contract when his rookie contract was up after the championship. The Warriors signed Poole for a four-year extension worth $140 million extension after moving a few pieces with very little wiggle room in the salary cap.

Then came the problem. Reports surfaced in October 2022 that Green punched Poole during the training camp. There was a heated exchange before the physical altercation, too. The team fined Green, and he was expressive about accepting consequences. However, Poole thought it was unnecessary to suspend him. Green publicly apologized to the team and Poole admitted they were both working through it.

However, the Warriors failed to win the 2023 championship, and they traded Poole in the offseason to acquire Chris Paul. It sounds like Green feels responsible for everything after Poole signed the extension. They have, however, moved past it.

No feud, only regret between Draymond Green and Jordan Poole

Jordan Poole returned to the Chase Center for the first time as a Wizard in December 2023. But it wasn’t a reunion with his former mentor, while Green was serving an indefinite suspension for striking Jusuf Nurkić. His former teammates, though, served him a warm welcome during warmups and the team threw it back to Poole’s Warriors stint with a montage.

Their past altercation became a speaking topic again. It was alleged that Green and Poole clashed as the Dubs’ office handed contract extensions to youngsters, Jordan and Andrew Wiggins over veterans like Dray and Klay Thompson. There was some alleged name-calling during training camp before Green knocked out his mentee unconscious.

Given how this season went for Green, it was alleged that the beef between him and Poole didn’t end with rumors that Green snubbed his olive branch. However, this confession on his podcast proves Dray has a lot of regret about the situation.