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Draymond Green apologized, will be disciplined internally after fight with Jordan Poole

Draymond Green was not at practice on Thursday and won’t be on Friday after his altercation with teammate Jordan Poole the night before.

Golden State Warriors general manager Bob Myers confirmed the heated incident between the two players and said that Green apologized to the organization in person before heading home on Thursday morning.

Any discipline for Green, Myers said, will be handled internally. He said it isn’t likely Green will miss any games, and Green is expected back at practice on Saturday.

"Everybody is fine. Jordan practiced today, Draymond didn't," Myers said.

"Look, it's the NBA, it's professional sports, these things happen. Nobody likes it. We don't condone it, but it happened."

A “heated interaction” escalated at the Warriors practice on Wednesday, according to multiple reports, and Green “forcefully struck Poole.” The two players were allegedly chest-to-chest while pushing and shoving each other beforehand.

The tensions between the two, according to Yahoo Sports’ Vincent Goodwill, had been boiling over since training camp. Both players are up for contract extensions this season. It appears that Poole will receive an extension, and Green will have to play the season out, per Goodwill.

Green averaged 7.5 points, 7.3 rebounds and seven assists per game last season while earning his fourth All-Star nod and helping the Warriors win their fourth title in eight seasons. The 32-year-old is entering the third year of a four-year, $99.6 million deal.

Poole averaged 18.5 points, four assists and 3.4 rebounds last season with the Warriors, all of which marked career-highs for the 23-year-old. Poole, who the Warriors took with the No. 28 overall pick in 2019, is entering the final year of his initial $10 million rookie contract.

Both of those negotiations are ongoing normally, Myers said, and he isn’t changing that strategy based on what happened Wednesday.

While he couldn’t be sure of the reasoning for the fight, Myers didn’t think the contract issues were the main cause. He was just told it was “normal bickering” in a scrimmage.

And by Thursday, Stephen Curry said the "vibe in practice" was great.

"It's obviously an unfortunate situation ... there's a lot of trust in the fabric of our team, in who we are, who we know those two guys to be and how we'll get through it and try to continue to make it about playing great basketball," Curry said. "The personal dynamics and stuff will work themselves out."

Myers: Draymond 'is a good person'

Green has faced similar issues throughout his career. He’s been fined and suspended by the league numerous times for various reasons, and the Warriors suspended him for a game in 2018 after he called then-teammate Kevin Durant a “bitch” during a game.

He isn’t likely to miss any games this time around. Myers said Green is already working to rebuild his relationship with the Warriors. He’s had plenty of practice with that in the past, and Myers said he “always comes back.”

“Draymond is one of my favorite players,” Myers said. “I told him that … Still love the person. Don’t love what he did, but still love the guy. He’s complicated. But he is a good person. He is a good person, he is. I’ve seen it, I’ve seen a lot of things he’s done. Yesterday wasn’t one of them.”

Now, since neither Poole nor Green were hurt in the altercation, Myers is just trying to get his group to move forward.

So far, at least in his eyes, they're doing just that.

"It'll take some time to move through, but we'll move through it and move forward. I'm confident that we will," Myers said. "We've got a good team, we've got good leadership, we've got some guys that have been here a long time.

"This isn't our first thing that's happened, first sense of adversity, we've been through some of this before. Don't like going through it, but it's part of the NBA and it's part of sports."

Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green
Draymond Green will be disciplined internally after he was involved in a heated altercation with teammate Jordan Poole. (Cary Edmondson/USA Today)