Steve Kerr Says NBA Teams Have 2-3 Fights a Year, Talks Draymond-Jordan Poole Skirmish

One of the most infamous moments of the Golden State Warriors' dynasty came in 2022 when a video surfaced of Draymond Green punching Jordan Poole in practice.

While fights between teammates seem rare, Warriors coach Steve Kerr clarified that they are somewhat common. He even recalled a story about a time when he and NBA legend Michael Jordan got into a skirmish in a Chicago Bulls practice.

"It happens. There's usually, I would say, two or three fights a year on our team, in basketball," Kerr said during a seminar (22:50 mark). "It's not like the normal rules of society. You can't go to work in the office and punch somebody. In basketball, you can kind of do that and it's okay."

Poole stuck around in Golden State through the 2022-23 season, but was traded to the Washington Wizards ahead of the 2023-24 campaign. Kerr explained the video of the punch did more harm than the actions of Green.

"It destroyed our team. I tried my best to handle it, but when the video made it out... the video was much more difficult than the fight itself, and we were trying to repair that all season long and we never really were able to," Kerr said. "So there are things that happen all the time that are so difficult. You do your best, you communicate with the players, you try to mend fences, but some things are insurmountable."

Green, who has since publicly apologized for punching Poole, reflected on the incident on an episode of the Pivot Podcast in June. He said he hoped to "move on" but realized he had done serious damage to his relationship with Poole.

"When that situation happened, I'm like, 'Alright, cool, we move on,'" Green said. "And then when we couldn't, I was like, 'Huh?' And for a while it made me think, this dude's nothing like me, because when those things happen, you just move on."

While Green and Poole have since gone their separate ways, Kerr's point about teams have several fights a year begs the question when another altercation will cause irreversible damage to a team.