Green’s Public Apology and Leave

On October 8, 2022, two days after news broke of the practice altercation and one day after TMZ’s video went public, Draymond Green met with reporters to address the incident. He apologized to Jordan Poole and the Warriors, calling himself “wrong,” and said he would step away from the team temporarily: “I’m going to continue to stay away... give Jordan some space... I do want to give my team some space,” he said, noting he had apologized to Poole and the team on Thursday before leaving the facility [2]. The league site summarized his remarks, including his denial that contract matters fueled the punch—Green said the looming contract situation “had nothing” to do with it [9]. Green also reflected on his mindset. As reported by The Washington Post, he said, “Hurt people hurt people. I hurt someone because I was in a place of hurt,” adding context to his contrition and the personal accountability he was attempting to show [3]. The apology and brief leave were intended to de-escalate tensions within the locker room while the Warriors deliberated on punishment. The timing—immediately after the video leak—meant the appearance doubled as a public accountability moment and a message to the league that the team was managing the fallout. While Green did not provide a verbatim account of what triggered the punch, he emphasized responsibility and the need for space for Poole and the team to move forward. The remarks became a key record of his initial public stance on the incident, which he would revisit in subsequent months and years.

Green’s October 8 apology and temporary leave marked the first comprehensive on-record response from a principal. It set the tone for how he would frame the incident—accepting blame, rejecting contract-motive theories, and emphasizing space for Poole—while the organization weighed discipline [2,9]. His comment, “Hurt people hurt people,” provided a human dimension that influenced how media and fans interpreted his remorse [3]. This moment also helped define expectations for team leadership ahead of Steve Kerr’s discipline announcement, and it foreshadowed Green’s later attempts at closure through additional apologies in 2025 [11,10].

Four days later, on October 12, head coach Steve Kerr announced that Green would be fined but not suspended, calling the situation “the biggest crisis that we’ve ever had since I’ve been coaching” [4]. Green returned to team activities under that disciplinary outcome. Although the Warriors attempted to move forward competitively, the incident lingered over the season’s narrative and public perception of team dynamics. In July 2023, after Poole was traded to Washington, Green revisited the episode on the Pat Bev Podcast, saying, “I don’t just hit people… We know stuff that you don’t say amongst men,” implying a verbal line was crossed without specifying details [7]. In January 2025, he again reiterated remorse on X—“I really am sorry”—and on his podcast: “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have punched him. But it happened. Let’s move on” [10,11].