The Draymond Green Documentary on TNT Was a Joke

Draymond Green, who has aggressively spearheaded the idea of New Media coming for everything the Old Media built, had ample time and opportunity to address punching Jordan Poole in the face during a Golden State Warriors practice on his podcast. What better place to get the unfiltered truth than the source, with no time or editorial constraints? Instead he chose to share his most expansive commentary on the situation he is most responsible for creating on cable television like it's 1988 or something. And the results were embarrassing for all involved.

Below is a bizarre and borderline tone-deaf documentary short about the incident and the fallout, which makes clear there's one true victim in the situation: Draymond Green. Who happens to work for Turner as an analyst and has been identified as Charles Barkley's successor whenever the Round Mound walks away from his new 10-year contract.

It seems the bigger issue was not Green punching Poole, but the fact that people found out.

"Once I woke up to the video, I don't know if the dynamic necessarily changed or not because you never really know people's opinions right away," he said in the piece after a montage of pundits criticizing him for resorting to violence against a teammate. "You give them some time to throw their opinions out, which quite frankly, I don't care about people's opinion. And to be totally honest with you, I never knew how much it blew up because I don't spend much time searching through Instagram or looking through comments. I don't read many tweets at all, so I was just at home chilling with my children."

This last line is punctuated with Green, who is treated like the subject of a tear-jerking Tom Rinaldi vignette, cradling his daughter. It's an incredible editorial choice considering the plainly laid facts of the case here: that Green instigated an incident and then assaulted someone whose hands were at their sides with a blow that could have done serious harm.

On the other hand, people were commenting under the video TMZ posted, so who is the real bad guy here? Makes you think, right?

Now, to be clear, Green has apologized to Poole. He's vowed to do everything he can to right the ship and gain trust and confidence back. He served his punishment, if you can call it that, and has returned to help the Warriors defend their title. Mistakes happen and there's no reason to continue, uh, beating him up for his transgression if the parties most affected have moved on. I am certainly not suggesting anything to the contrary.

What I am suggesting is that this sympathetic puff piece, which uses quotes from the media scored against the ominous music one would find in a particularly misleading political ad, was entirely unnecessary and perhaps worse when one considers that it was produced by an outlet that pays Green.

The second part flips on a dime and explores how Green punching Poole was actually good because it caused self-reflection before previewing the Warriors' ring ceremony, held before last night's win over the Los Angeles Lakers. It really is remarkable that this will be the document of record presenting the forward's side of the story.

This feels more like public relations than journalism, more like propaganda than a nuanced look at what went down and the consequences being carried. Perhaps it was naive to expect anything less, but it seems fair to demand more. It couldn't have been more pro-Draymond if Draymond had produced it himself. Candidly it felt like an insult to the viewers intelligence if there was a belief we couldn't see through it.

Turner's NBA coverage is unmatched. Green is a fantastic player and terrific on-air as well. All parties are juggling a difficult, unprecedented situation.

None of that makes this bizarre puffery any less of a brick.