> But focusing heavily on TMZ’s ability to so quickly obtain and publish the footage of Green’s punch is unavoidable here. That’s not because we’re trying to obscure the severity of Green’s egregious behavior. It’s because actually seeing the footage is what makes this situation so different from every single NBA practice scrap before it.
> I took some grief Friday for tweeting that a practice-floor punch had been landed in the NBA at least a hundred times before. I certainly could have written the sentence with more sensitivity and less hyperbole, because the intent wasn’t to normalize such over-the-line behavior. Yet the larger point stands. I was merely trying to spotlight the uncharted territory that the TMZ video has hauled the Warriors into.
> Altercations in NBA practices might not happen as frequently as they used to, but my checking with various coaches and players around the league in the past few days certainly supported the sentiment that they still happen far more often than we usually end up hearing on the outside.
> The details, in many cases, tend to be kept quiet.
[Source (Paywall)](https://marcstein.substack.com/p/what-a-difference-four-months-makes)
by iksnet
29 Comments
Do players throw knockout punches at other teammates frequently?
Steven Adams: Tell Draymond. I want him to know it was me.
Lotta high fives
These practice brawls sound more entertaining than regular season basketball, let’s see them.
But how many of those hundred punches were also thrown by Draymond?
I just don’t think they are frequently sucker punches by a “team-leader” vet who is significantly larger than the young star-in-the-making he punches.
We all know players will have Arguments and might even push and get held back. I don’t think it’s many vets throwing super man punches at younger players tho
Podmond really be doing damage control now
No matter how many times this gets said, this sub will still just dismiss it lmao
We’ve heard from a number of players both inside and outside basketball that this sort of encounter happens very rarely if at all. Altercations and scuffles happen plenty, we know that, but not shit like this.
These fools are just mad the tape got leaked because now all of their other nonsense is at threat of being leaked by a random employee.
Like what Dame publicly said on this was straight up nonsense.
Gonna get downvoted but I can tell this subreddit has more fans than actual ball players. If it wasn’t the case people would know this is common in a competitive basketball environment.
Hell I played pickup last week and some kid slapped the shit out of another one. It got broken up and we all continued to play. Another time a dude straight up brandished a knife when he disagreed with a foul call.
It’s almost unexplainable, it’s just a certain ego driven attitude that comes along with playing basketball especially with brothas, and we accept it for what it is.
I’m black btw.
bro i don’t understand how context doesn’t matter. for the ppl saying its not a big deal, would it be different if it was draymond punching steph? or russ punching pat bev? who punching who and what the context of that punch was matters, and draymond is a 10 year vet and is the “leader” of the team punching someone 10 years younger than him at full power when he wasn’t expecting it. not only that but this isn’t the first time draymond’s behavior has been an issue; he may have cost them the 2016 finals, may have cost them kd
At this point I’m offended that these people think fans don’t know fights happen. No shit they do. This was assault. Fuck off.
people in here don’t understand it because you don’t get that same team dynamic at a Wendy’s
I think there’s room for both “fights and altercations happen all the time in practice” and “sucker punches that knock a player out aren’t common” to both be true
“The NBA should be allowed to deal w/ this pattern of illegal behavior internally and absent of public scrutiny.”
-The Catholic Church
Really Bruh?
Altercations, or assaults?
This wasn’t “an altercation”. That’s the whole thing.
If they squared up and harmlessly slapped eachother a few times like in any basketball fight, it’d be in the news for a day but nobody would care.
Draymond slugged him, in the face, unexpectedly. It’s assault. I would hate for my kid to think he can assault other players just because “sports”.
I’m sure this isn’t going to go well but I just have to say it…
Responses to this reeeally shows the demographic of this sub. Calling this a “suckered punch” and an “assault” and all that, just shows you didn’t grow up fighting, or even seeing fights for that matter.
This is NOT a sucker punch. They were obviously talking back and forth. Draymond walked up to him. Poole PUSHED him. The moment you push somebody it means I’m ready for the smoke. Now Poole might not have thought Dray would actually swing. But Poole initiated the fight by being physical first. And underestimated the situation.
Now I am NOT condoning what Dray did. It was reckless and he should be suspended imo or maybe even worse. I’m just annoyed at the sucker punch narrative.
This is me pushing, and therefore ready for the smoke 😂😂
Steven Adam’s Draymonds first victim lol
>[Stein] Checking with various coaches and players around the league supported the sentiment that ~~altercations~~ **loading up on a sucker punch where the dude crumples to the ground and then going ground and pound until you’re pulled off by 6 other guys** in NBA practices still happen far more often than we usually end up hearing on the outside.
Sorry, FTFY Steiny Mo.
Truth is, most of those punches aren’t heard of because none of those guys had a known punishment coming out. Woj and Shams were already taking about punishment for an “altercation” days before the video came out, meaning this one crossed the line so bad that the team couldn’t just let it go.
When I think of frequent “fights” in practice, I just assume they look a lot like the KAT- Embiid kerfuffle from a few years back, where it builds over time, both parties have time to “square up” and culminates in some unfocused swings and quasi-wrestling.
Green got in Poole’s face, who shoved him in a pretty standard get-outta-my-face way, then Green immediately went to haymaker while Poole had his hands down. That’s not a “fight” that’s damn near assault.
Again, I’m not in NBA locker rooms so I’m open to being wrong, but I just have such a hard time imagining what Draymond did is commonplace. NBA players are fucking specimens, the average NBA player is probably 6’6” 215 and a top 1% athlete in the world. if there were tons of incidents identical to what Draymond did, someone’s getting concussed, a broken nose, a broken jaw, something that would draw questions. And the only one that’s close is Portis which was years ago and drew tons of attention.
Not to be that guy, but if this those happen more often than not, one, that’s not good, two, it’s kind of hard to believe that people start throwing punches in practice.
Like sure I something can be said about oh if it was any other player it wouldnt be a big deal but like we will never know because we never hear about it
How are half of league sources saying this happens all the time and the other half are saying they’ve never seen something like that
Here’s something I can guarantee…
99.99999% of those altercations do not end with one of the players getting absolutely JAWED
Professional sports are in such a dumb, multibillion dollar bubble.
If this was Dray and Iggy getting into it no one would care. This was a 10+ years vet viciously sucker punching and 23 old and pinning him against the wall. I highly doubt that shot happens often.
Altercations, sure. Superman punch knockouts? Doubtful