Trade to Wizards Completed

On June 22, 2023, reports indicated Golden State had agreed to trade Jordan Poole and draft assets to the Washington Wizards for 12-time All-Star Chris Paul. Yahoo Sports cited ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski: “Golden State is sending Jordan Poole to the Washington Wizards for 12-time All-Star Chris Paul” [12]. Two weeks later, on July 6, 2023, the teams officially completed the deal; Hoops Rumors noted that “The Warriors confirmed the move in a press release (Twitter link)” and detailed the draft-pick terms [13]. The trade occurred after a season marked by the October 2022 practice punch, the October 7 video leak, and a fine-only disciplinary resolution for Draymond Green [1,4]. While personnel moves are multifactorial, the trade decisively ended the Green–Poole teammate dynamic and gave each player a new context: Poole as a primary scorer in Washington and Paul fitting into Golden State’s veteran core [12,13]. The timing—shortly after the Warriors’ 2022–23 campaign—meant the franchise was repositioning its roster for another title push while adjusting personalities and roles. Publicly, neither principal framed the trade as a direct consequence of the incident, and the organization did not present it that way in formal communications. Still, the transaction served as a clear structural shift in the story: Poole and Green were no longer on the same team, reducing day-to-day friction points while leaving lingering public questions about their personal relationship.

Finalizing Poole’s move to Washington physically separated the two central figures of the conflict, altering the dynamics of any ongoing tension. For Golden State, acquiring Chris Paul signaled an emphasis on experienced playmaking and on-court stability, while Washington handed Poole a larger role [12,13]. Although the trade cannot be attributed solely to the October 2022 incident, it is a key chapter in the broader narrative—closing the teammate era while leaving the interpersonal storyline unresolved. Subsequent public remarks in July 2023 and January 2025 show the topic persisted even after the roster separation [7,10,11].

Within weeks of the trade’s completion, the discourse resurfaced. Around July 18, 2023, Draymond Green said on the Pat Bev Podcast, “I don’t just hit people… We know stuff that you don’t say amongst men” [7]. The next day, Jordan Poole’s father, Anthony, posted an explicit tweet at Green, alleging Green had not apologized to Poole’s parents [8]. Over a year later, on January 19, 2025, following a Wizards–Warriors game at Chase Center, Green posted on X, “I really am sorry,” and reiterated on January 22 on his podcast: “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have punched him. But it happened. Let’s move on” [10,11]. These developments showed that even after the trade, public interest and commentary around the 2022 punch continued intermittently.