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The punch heard around the world is only the beginning of Draymond’s angle with Poole and the Warriors
Draymond Green Falcon Punched Jordan Poole in one of the offseason’s biggest storylines, as everyone is aware of by now. Poole and Green were both in line for big deals, and Poole got his big money extension while Green still waits for his. Things got tense during practice and Green swung and connected.
HOWEVER, the plot thickens.
Green’s production company Green 23, in a partnership with Omaha Productions and WBD Sports, is releasing ‘The Countdown’, which follows Green through the preseason AND discusses the punch heard around the world.
WBD Sports, Omaha Productions and Green 23 will debut a new all-access series, The Countdown, during pregame tonight.
The premiere will feature Draymond Green’s journey throughout the preseason, including Green’s reaction to his practice altercation and return to the Warriors. pic.twitter.com/ZO7clVQpnS
— Warner Bros. Discovery Sports U.S. PR (@WBDSportsPR) October 18, 2022
I’ve been around the block before and I know a pro wrestling storyline when I see it. This is the quintessential disgraced former member of a faction has to work his way back into the group. Draymond is the heel in this case, considering he punched a teammate (The Athletic’s Marcus Thompson broke down why it means so much). Think when Triple H broke up DX after Shawn Michaels returned to the ring in 2002. Now, there was no suspension and Green was only fined, but that doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Long term booking, brother.
So, here’s how the storyline works: Draymond and Poole clearly aren’t on speaking terms. In the first game of the season against the Lakers, Poole walks off the court after Draymond does something wrong, leaving the Warriors to play four on five, inevitably losing to the NBA’s version of the Undertaker. After the game, Kerr is asked about this moment but Green interrupts, calling out Poole for not being a man and moving on, despite Poole still clearly feeling the symptoms from being Shoryuken’d by Green.
They go back and forth for months, always on the wrong page. Poole cuts when Green thinks he’s staying on the 3 point line, botched switches on defense, and eventually it gets on the nerves of Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, because the Warriors have fallen in the rankings down to the sixth seed (if you’re asking about Andrew Wiggins and Kevon Looney, they are both X-Pac in this case).
Eventually, tensions boil over when Steph Curry is once again a guest on…that’s right…THE MANNINGCAST! Omaha Productions partners with the Mannings to create multimedia content, bringing back the preseason Draymond show. Curry tells the Mannings on the Manningcast that he’s tired of the shenanigans between Poole and Green and it’s actively hurting the team.
This leads to another big blowup between the Warriors: Christmas Day. Against the Western Conference-leading Grizzlies, the Warriors prove to be no match, and the viral moment of Curry and Green shouting back and forth between each other with Wiggins and Poole on Team Curry and Looney and Thompson on Team Green. Curry then shoves Green and tempers flare to the point Steve Kerr has to separate everyone!
This leads to the next pay-per-view, the Royal Rumble. At the Rumble, Steve Kerr is the guest ref for the six man elimination tag match between Curry, Wiggins and Poole and Thompson, Green and Looney. The match goes as advertised, but when the final two come between Poole and Green (Klay eliminates Steph in an upset), Green goes for the Falcon Punch—AND MISSES! Poole learned from his mistakes! He ducks the punch from Green, who swings so hard he KNOCKS OUT STEVE KERR! Poole sees this chance, and whacks Draymond with a steel chair as his version of vengeance. Assistant coach Kenny Atkinson runs down the entrance ramp, counts the 1, 2, 3 on a KO’d Green. And Team Steph wins!
After the Royal Rumble shenanigans, Kerr suspends Green for punching him, and Draymond is away from the team for months, yet the team is clearly off. They’re being pushed around by the upstart Oklahoma City Thunder, and they should be slipping further if it weren’t for Steph Curry’s general insane-ness.
March 11 comes around. Warriors. Bucks. In San Francisco. The Warriors are no match for Stone Cold Steve Austin Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks, and they find themselves down 18 with 5 minutes left in the third.
BUT THEN DRAYMOND GREEN’S MUSIC HITS!
The crowd goes wild, chanting his name as he sprints from the locker room, returning from suspension to help the Warriors in the final stretch of the season. Green’s energy and physicality lifts the Warriors to an upset win over Milwaukee in overtime, and after the game, Poole and Green embrace in the hug heard around the world.
Green lifts the Warriors on their final stretch of the season to the 3 seed in the playoffs, and in the Western Conference Finals, they face none other than the team that started this whole thing: the Los Angeles Lakers.
Patrick Beverley is the classic heel, talking trash before, during and after games, and at one point Green goes to swing and Poole stops him! The growth! The Warriors are stronger as a team now than they were when they won the title, and after the season (Stone Cold Giannis Antetokounmpo always gets his vengeance), Green re-signs with the Warriors.
Honestly, Dave Meltzer would give the Rumble match seven stars, but remember this if the Warriors start off on the wrong foot tonight against the Lakers.
