SAN FRANCISCO -- The road to repeating as NBA champions isn't supposed to go like this. There are bumps, there are potholes and there are wrong turns. Then there's this, a situation that can swerve the team bus off the road with no turning back.
Will the leaked video of Draymond Green punching teammate Jordan Poole during practice be too much for the Warriors to overcome?
Green believes it won't be.
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The 11-year veteran spoke with the media Saturday at Chase Center for the first time since Wednesday's incident. He'll continue to stay away from Poole and the rest of his Warriors teammates for the time being to better himself, and he believes space is best for all parties involved. As far as basketball goes, Green expects he and the Warriors to do what they've always done.
Win.
"Nothing," Green said without hesitation when asked what the situation does to the Warriors' winning culture. "We're professionals, we have a job to do, and we're winners. Winners win. Winners find a way to win.
"I have been a winner my entire life, and I'm going to find a way to win."
Golden State Warriors
Those statements strictly were regarding basketball. Green admits he has work to do personally, and plans to enhance his ability to deal with emotions. That certainly can and likely will take longer than the few days he's expected to be away from the team.
On the court, once he returns, Draymond expects to be the same player he always has been and for the Warriors to continue to come out on top when looking at the scoreboard.
"As far as winning goes, we've been through some s--t to win at the level that we're won at," he said. "Some of them public but a lot more private. And this is no different. It's different from the standpoint of my actions and what happened. But as far as winning goes, you go through things to win.
"I'm disappointed that this is something that I created that we have to go through. For that reason, I'll do all that I have to do to make it right. But this won't affect winning. Winners win. Winners find a way. We'll win."
After Green and coach Steve Kerr got into a heated shouting match at halftime of a February 2016 game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Warriors went on to win that game and finished the regular season with a 21-4 run. They won a league-record 73 regular-season games but blew a three-games-to-one lead against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals.
If Green hadn't been suspended for Game 5 of those Finals, the Warriors almost assuredly would've won it all that season.
After Green and Kevin Durant were in a public sideline kerfuffle before overtime of a November 2018 game against the Los Angeles Clippers, the Warriors lost that contest. They again made it back to the Finals but with a nearly unbeatable roster when healthy.
If it weren't for Durant and Klay Thompson both being injured in the 2019 Finals, the Warriors likely have another banner to hang.
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This is a different team, a different roster, and Green is at a different part of his career. Including Poole, the Warriors have six players who are 23 years old or younger. Poole, at 23, is the future. Green, at 32 with a player option on his contract for the 2023-24 season before becoming an unrestricted free agent, is the present, with a cloud over his future that just became much darker and murkier.
These aren't the KD Warriors. They're deep and they're talented. Can they handle this, though?
"My job as a leader, my job as a winner is to do all that I can to make it where in April, May and June that this was a bump in the road for this team that we got over and that we rode on our way," Green said.