Stephen Curry had just finished answering yet another question about Draymond Green “forcefully striking” Jordan Poole at practice 24 hours earlier. Then the four-time MVP let out a long sigh, tapped his fingers on the podium and surveyed the media room at Chase Center, sensing it was time to end Wednesday's interview on terms set by himself and the Golden State Warriors.

“…And we had a great practice today,” a sardonic Curry added, unprompted. “I made some shots and some guys played really well. The scrimmage ended in a tie in case anyone wanted to know how basketball went today. It was phenomenal. We'll get to those questions later, right?”

Forgive Curry's light, thinly veiled criticism of reporters for focusing so much on the latest internal turmoil sparked by his notoriously emotional co-star.

Bob Myers had just spent much of his media availability not only downplaying fallout from Wednesday's incident between Green and Poole, but emphasizing Curry's responsibility to help his team get through it. Steve Kerr subsequently refused to answer direct inquiries about the matter, further shifting the onus to Curry while clarifying Myers' remarks that Green's public-facing form of punishment would be limited to missing Thursday's practice.

That concerted effort from Golden State's power brokers to keep additional details on and further repercussions from the matter in-house was hardly surprising.

The Warriors play under the league's clearest microscope, but Poole's good spirits while hoisting post-practice jumpers on Wednesday coupled with Green's team-wide apology the following morning allowed for the possibility that external consequences, at least, really could prove somewhat short-lived. Well, as long as everyone privy to severity of the altercation battened down the hatches like Myers, Kerr and Curry.

It didn't happen.

Footage released by TMZ on Friday morning shows Draymond Green putting the full weight of his body behind a right hook to Poole's face, wildly swinging with his left hand as his teammate immediately slumps against the wall. Poole wasn't expecting the blow, either. His face is clearly turned down and away as the pair separate from Poole's half-hearted shove after Green confronted him chest-to-chest.

That's not an open-palmed hit, back-handed slap or even closed-fist jab. Whoever initially spoke to The Athletic did Golden State a massive favor by referring to Green's violent act as anything other than a sucker punch.

“It was nothing out of the ordinary until it wasn't,” Curry said on Thursday.

Myers said he didn't expect Green's punishment to extend to game action, and Kerr confirmed shortly thereafter he'd be back with the Warriors on Saturday in preparation for their preseason opener against the Los Angeles Lakers the following evening. They're off on Friday, with no formal practice or media availability, sparing players and coaches the inevitably fraught task of responding to public frenzy of the video's release.

Maybe that fortunate bit of scheduling happenstance makes it easier for Golden State to continue lessening a story that's only growing bigger. Myers, Kerr and Curry breezily echoed the same company line with a full day to prep for Wednesday's interview sessions. Rest assured whoever speaks with Kerr on Saturday will be equipped by team PR and communications staffers to react in a similarly measured manner.

Myers stressed Thursday that both Green and Poole would “soon” address the issue.

“Knowing Jordan like I do, he’s pretty resilient and he’ll get through it,” he said. “But I can’t say how he feels or how he should feel.”

There's now no denying the gravity of Green's physical outburst regardless, though.

NBA franchises aren't normal businesses and the practice floor isn't a typical office. The racism and misogyny that made Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver a pariah and workplace misconduct that led to Ime Udoka's one-year suspension from the Boston Celtics fall under a non-basketball purview, standing completely apart from an on-court fight between teammates.

But Green and Poole didn't throw hands back and forth. There's only one offending party here, and he's extremely lucky Poole wasn't knocked out cold. The most forthright Myers was talking with reporters on Thursday is when he repeatedly stressed that Poole left the fracas uninjured, with his faculties completely intact. That should've been a sign Green's “strike” was much more severe than reporting suggested, but the Warriors did everything else they could to diminish its tangible and intangible impact.

Why? Golden State's dynasty only has so many years remaining, and copping to realities of the most flagrant transgression of Green's career as a title defense dawns runs the risk of derailing it. But so does the obfuscation Myers, Kerr and Curry engaged in on Thursday. Green's punch, Poole's reaction and frayed locker-room chemistry isn't the only story now; the Warriors' evasive handling of the controversy deserves scrutiny, too.

Don't be surprised if Golden State doubles back on Green's punishment as a result, doling out the multi-game suspension the organization so clearly wanted to avoid. Anything less would be a dereliction of its responsibility to not just Poole, but a worldwide fan base that puts the Warriors, rightly or wrongly, on a pedestal as the NBA's all-around gold standard.

None of this means Golden State's chances to repeat are doomed. The Warriors will remain in the first tier of title contenders until on-court results prove otherwise. But their initial public approach to Draymond Green's vicious punch only made matters worse, adding an extra layer of controversy to a situation already littered with tension.