The video changes how things feel, even if it doesn’t ultimately change the outcome.
The Warriors went from “there was an altercation at practice” to a video showing Green rapidly escalating a standard shoving match with a quick and vicious punch to the face of Jordan Poole. This was something the Warriors thought would fade away and was out of the news cycle to something at the top of the sports news cycle they will have to deal with for a while.
The Warriors are now trying to find out how this practice video got leaked, according to multiple reports. Adrian Wojnarowski and Ramona Shelburne of ESPN were first.
Reporting w/ @wojespn: The Golden State Warriors are taking “every legal course of action” to discover how video of Draymond Green punching Jordan Poole during a scuffle at practice on Wednesday was made public, sources told ESPN.
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) October 7, 2022
Two thoughts here.
First, the Warriors absolutely should investigate who leaked this video. Players around the league’s reaction to the public video shows how they feel practice is a safe, private space for them, and to make it public crosses a line. It’s possible a Warriors or Chase Center staffer went for the bag (TMZ pays for this kind of video/story) and violated the Warriors’ policy and practices in the process. Simply put: Someone should get fired over this.
However, the more interesting scenario is the Warriors can’t determine where the leak came from. That could lead to all kinds of speculation about someone wanting to make Green look bad — the who and why of that possibility can go a lot of different directions.
Second, we see this in politics all the time — use the search for the leaker to distract from what was leaked. Blame the messenger. The video shows a vicious, borderline sucker punch from Green (he was facing Poole, but nobody saw that coming), and it’s fair to question if the Warriors are handling it “internally” was the right move and if they have done enough to chastize Green. There is a history of crossing the line with him.
Wherever you fall on how the Warriors are handling it, they would much prefer a discussion of how it was leaked to discussing that footage and the impact on the team.
That’s the big problem for the Warriors — this is no longer just fading away as they hoped.
