Draymond Green has decided to step away from the Golden State Warriors as he tries to “heal” himself following his now highly-publicized fight with teammate Jordan Poole. Green revealed that he was in a “bad place” from a personal standpoint when the fight happened and that he now wants to take time away from the team as he deals with his personal issues.
At this point, however, it remains unclear how long Green's self-imposed hiatus will be. The Warriors are slated to take on LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers for their season opener on October 19th, and it seems that Draymond could now be in danger of sitting that one out (h/t ClutchPoints on Twitter):
“Yeah, I expect to play. Now will I play? That's a totally different story,” Green said. “That's something that we will continue to figure out as we move forward and feel through what's right. Like I said before, there's no right or wrong answer. … What the answer is is to feel our way through this.”
It doesn't sound like Green's hiatus has a fixed timeline. It also seems like it was a mutual decision with the team and that right now, everything's fluid. This likely means that Green could be back with the team as early as tomorrow, and at the same time, he could be away for a month or so. As he said, they're just going to play everything by ear.
“I hope to play,” Green continued. “It's the first day or first real day as far as games go and things counting. That matters in our mission and goal to repeat. So, yeah, I hope to. And yes, I do expect to, but in saying that that's not something that's been decided. That's not something that's certain. That's something that we'll continue to work through over the days to come and just feel our way through what's best for our team. Because ultimately that's what matters the most — it's this team. We'll figure out and feel our way through what's best and we'll go from there.”
It's also worth noting that LeBron has been mum throughout this entire ordeal. He's one of Draymond's closest friends in the NBA, but it seems that he would rather not speak out publicly with regard to his issue. The Lakers superstar probably feels that it isn't his place to do so.