Draymond Green spent about five minutes of his 21-minute, self-produced "The Countdown" documentary talking about the Jordan Poole punch that brought him to new heights of NBA villainy. The truest statement in that span of time:
"Can’t change the events that happened, but we can control what happens moving forward, and that’s where we are."
If the documentary, produced by Green, Peyton Manning's Omaha Productions and Warner Bros. Discovery, is any indication, Green is very much interested in controlling what happens moving forward.
Aired ahead of the NBA's season opener on TNT, Green went through a few aspects of Warriors training camp, like complaints about media day and the fun of preseason games in Japan, but all anyone wanted to see him talk about was the Poole punch, which earned him a fine and a few days away from the team but no suspension.
Once the documentary finally reached that territory, it became very clear how Green saw the reaction to him punching a teammate. The Golden State Warriors star is the hero of his own story, which is true for any athlete making their own documentaries, but using a clip of himself kissing his daughter as he claimed to not care about the punch's reaction was a bit much:
“I never really knew how much it blew up. … I was just at home chillin with my children.”
Draymond reflects on the viral video of his altercation with Jordan Poole
(via @NBAonTNT) pic.twitter.com/gOqWpFDfYG
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) October 18, 2022
Green's take:
"You never really know people’s opinions right away, so you give people some time to throw their opinion out, which quite frankly I don’t care about people’s opinion. To be totally honest with you, I never really knew how much it blew up. Because I don’t spend much time searching Instagram or looking through comments.
"I don’t really read many tweets at all, so I was at home chilling with my children. If you want me to be honest with you, I still don’t know how much the world may think it blew up."
Yes, Green does not care about how much it blew up, even though he has also said he has watched the video 15 times and expressed anger the video leaked at all. And produced a nationally televised documentary about it.
The documentary makers were certainly aware the video blew up, giving Green the full "hero in isolation" vibe by having the narrator call Green's time away from the team an "exile, for lack of a better word" and depicting his solo workouts as high drama.
The dramatization of Draymond working out alone at his complex during his "suspension"
They use the word Exile lmao pic.twitter.com/lWFqi5IUVm
— Alex 👋 (@Dubs408) October 18, 2022
The never-stated, but overarching message of the documentary is simply that something bad happened to Green. He punched Poole, and then the mean old media and pundits started calling him a bad teammate, said he deserved a suspension and questioned his future with the Warriors.
But Green doesn't care about that. Green, the stalwart leader, never let the consequences of his actions get to him. Why would he? He's Draymond Green.
The great hypocrisy at work on TNT, though, might be that the documentary was aired at all. Green publicly apologized to Poole and his family for the "embarrassment" that they had to deal with. Poole said he just wants to move on. And now, Green is airing his own media about the punch for the largest NBA audience possible, on a day of celebration for the Warriors, talking about "the upside" of the situation.
Draymond Green reflects on his altercation with Jordan Poole pic.twitter.com/Cx0b0FgLni
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) October 18, 2022
Eventually, the documentary crescendos with inspiring music as Green looks forward to the season ahead and the chance to repeat. First up, though, is the Warriors' ring night, and the narrator didn't miss an opportunity to turn even that into a way to show Green overcoming adversity (directly of his own making):
"For Draymond, perhaps this impending [ring night] will carry extra significance as the one that conceivably almost got away."
With every other famous athlete having their own production company and a constant thirst for sports content in today's streaming world, Green is not alone in self-producing his own documentary. He joins Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, Derek Jeter, Magic Johnson and plenty of others.
Green is very aware of this, having talked about athletes leading the wave of "new media" in opposition to the old media's hot takes and clickbait. And yet, for all the thoughts you might have about Skip Bayless, at least he never aired a documentary on how difficult it is to punch someone and not feel bad about yourself.
That's where Green's documentary hits a more insidious tone. Without even including Poole's opinion on the event, Green presents his side of the story in full HD, ready to take control of a narrative that dared threaten him.
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