Ambassador Poole from the late great Golden State has been banished to a terrible team, The Washington Wizards. Since he was sucker-punched by an envious Draymond Green, JP has had a Jamesian education in a world of lies. Two days before he was traded, Golden State’s new GM, had assured journalists that Poole and Jonathan Kuminga would remain by the Bay: “We love having those guys here. Jordan, especially with his contract extension, we plan to have him here for 4 more years at least.” (That “at least” is priceless.) Poole is, per his own words, “a child of God.” As a Christian, he’s probably trying not to cultivate his vengeful side, but I’m under no effing obligation. Ca ira to NOT root for a team run by scum. And I’m not talking (chiefly) about the egotist who punched Jordan here. I’m talking about the pale scum, the thickest scum, the scummiest scum who never dared to stand up to Draymond Green.
What follows is the (anxious) tribute to JP I posted earlier this spring. May there be more Poole parties in his/our future!
I hopped with Jordan Poole after he hit the three-pointer that iced Philly in a key game last week. It was diminishing, though, to see my good bunny’s joy from on high (on instagram). The loneliness of a big-shot b-baller?
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I could be projecting. (Where’s my wife? I’m recalling just now how my bellows — as JP made shot after shot against Philly — harshed her evening mellow, driving her out of our living room.) So maybe it’s me, not JP. Still, his self-enrapture seemed pretty far gone from last season’s team fun. I’m flashing back from the aftermath of this spring’s splash to Stephen Curry’s gaze at Poole after JP hit a buzzer-beater against Boston in last year’s playoffs, which sparked memes: “Get someone to look at you the way Steph looks at Jordan Poole…”
JP’s I’m-on-my-own high this March might’ve have been due in part to the fact that Draymond Green and Steve Kerr were the first Warriors he ran into on his triumphal way back up-court. Green, of course, may have trashed the Warriors’ team chemistry for the foreseeable when he sucker-punched Poole in training camp last fall. Video from last winter of Poole witnessing Kerr usher Green off-court (after a common foul) hints healing wasn’t yet on the agenda…
Kerr is one of the elders on the team who acted as flak-catchers in the wake of Green’s outrage. I wish I could forget how Kerr et al. directed the force of their reproval at whoever released the video of the assault, not at Green. (A passing tweet offered more moral clarity than any of Golden State’s leading men: “I can see how trash talk is a part of the game, a scuffle from a hard foul, in the heat of a physical game etc. Walking half-way across the gym just to sucker punch your younger, physically smaller, more vulnerable teammate is plain personal and inexcusable.”)
Last fall, Stephen Curry vowed Green’s attack on Poole wouldn’t break Golden State’s team due to the “culture” he’d built along with Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, et al. He allowed the team’s older gen had plenty of work to do and claimed he was up for it. But I don’t see much evidence he’s been an effective diplomat.[1] My recent squib here touches on how Curry undercut Poole in a February game. I’ve also been struck by Steve Kerr’s refusal to try on any tenderness toward Poole as press people and many Warrior fans began piling on the young star after he endured iffy endgames and shooting slumps.[2] Kerr’s choice to play Dante DiVincenzo over Poole at crunch time (until Poole’s recent stretch of hotness made that untenable) seemed severe even if the coach wasn’t tuning his rotations to plaints about JP.
After Poole’s eruption in 4th Quarter of the Philly game, JP called out haters for their “extra slander.” He then took on a nemesis-journalist who’d pushed for DiVincenzo to take his spot. Note how JP punctuates his snap-back with table-taps, before moving on to clarify his point about the flow of a game.
JP took advantage of his opportunity in the fourth quarter pic.twitter.com/erttvKOJH4
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) March 25, 2023
JP’s interrogator, journalist Monte Poole, had shit-posted about him just a few days before his break-out game against Philly (Exasperating Jordan Poole succumbing to bad habits, failing to reach potential – NBC Sports Bay Area). [3]
Monte Poole wasn’t the only reporter who came hard at JP in March. As pressure ramped up — along with talk of trading Poole in the off-season — I figured JP was cooked. Confidence is key for any player, and I thought I could see JP’s wilting. (I was moved when Andre Iguodala put his hand on JP’s crown as the frustrated young baller sat on the bench during a game last month; Iggy’s gesture said: “Keep your head up youngblood.” Looking back, I wish I’d tried harder to stay a believer).[4]
Forgive me for quoting from my own March email to a small set of Warriors’ fans, but it seems only right to let on I wasn’t anticipating JP’s comeback (or Monte Poole’s comeuppance):
I’m really blue right now as I think the Warriors has been screwed up by that punch. Or more to the point — JP is still feeling it — since Steph and Klay have followed up with their own on-court disses and that, in turn, seems to have nearly quashed JP’s wonderfully avid quality…Ah well — youth (and its smiling aspect) goes. Which is probably why I’m so sad as I see JP get old (quickly)…
One line from an anti-JP piece of pack-journalism laid down our fuct culture’s ruling ideas. Per this voice of the world-as-it-is: “The Warriors need Poole to play like a $100-million player right now if they hope to make something of this season.”[5] This sort of crap-talk makes me miss Bob Cousy’s color commentary on NBA games, which was bracing since Cousy’s easeful voice never let you forget you were watching men at play. His light tone not only rebuked monsters who treat sports as moral equivalents of war, but also talked right past bottom liners who boil the game down to business.
You could say I wasn’t born to be a G.M. I have no clue if JP will be “worth” the contract he signed at the start of this year. What I know is his meld of speed and touch is nearly otherworldly. His game should appeal to anyone who wants to see something new under the lights.
Poole takes his craft mad seriously.[5] He links grinding with freedom. Forgive me for reposting the next video of a post-game session from last year’s playoffs, but I’m hoping there’s magic in repetition. Hear (again) how Poole bridled gently when a would-be preceptor tried to make him and other young Warriors into Curry’s “supporting cast.” Last year’s Warriors freely played together not in some top-down, LeBron-ish hierarchy. Their locker-room was truly fraternal. Listen/watch how Jordan goes deep into his feelings for “big bro Loon,” without any showiness…
Poole re-upped on his affection for Loon in a vlog last summer. On a boat in Italy, cruising on Lake Como with a small crew of buddies, JP shouted out again to his big brother who’d apparently told him to make sure he got out on the water. Fine advice from another inner city kid. (Loon’s from Milwaukee, like Jordan.)
JP collaborated with his photographer-friend Jordan Jimenez to make vlogs as they tripped through Italy, Greece, Paris and London. I’m not going to claim these are must-see vids. (There are too many scenes of hotel interiors, JP’s gym sessions, and foodie photos.) OTOH, JP and the other Jordan come across as true travel-lovers who feel blessed to be walking streets of strange cities, trying out new chow, goofing on the changing of the guard, touring the Louvre and The National Gallery, watching the sun come up on Mikonos or go down behind hills around Lake Como.[6] Our Jordans abroad seem almost as fresh as James-y innocents in Europa.
Live all you can? I hope JP’s yearning for experiences hasn’t taken a hit since the sucker-punch and all that’s gone down in its wake. May his team’s elders finally get real with Draymond Green — Warrior from Saginaw — and make a new start with their youthful envoy from the realm of freedom.
Notes
1 The heading of this video might be click-bait, yet it seems apparent Curry’s move here was less than loverly/teacherly.
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OTOH, I’m feeling Curry’s dance after one of JP’s recent spins:
2 No doubt, Kerr’s cool inattentiveness to the state of his players’ heads can be a strength. As a former journeyman pro himself, he’s aware nobody much cared about his temper when he played and he probably learned to leave players’ moods alone. It’s easy to make too much of their ups and downs, especially now with all the blather that surrounds every game. Greg Popovich’s recent praise of Kerr’s coaching put a positive spin on his mentee’s objective approach: “Understanding the common denominator. Getting rid of all the chaff that doesn’t mean anything, all the noise, and figuring out what is the problem. What is the solution? Let’s do that. We don’t have to overthink it. We don’t have to do anything for image sake. Just figure out what you need to fix or establish. Get at it, and then go to dinner. Have a glass. See your family.”
This bit from Pop is worth preserving too, though I’m not sure it chimes with Kerr’s more impersonal way in the world:
I think there’s some things that tie generations together. Humor is always humor, whether it was a team I had 20 years ago or now, and humor is huge in our program. Music is huge. The performers are different — I give my guys static about that all the time. Like, you can’t even dance to that. If you can’t dance to it, then why would you listen to it? Just silly things like that. But that holds true for every generation — humor and music, those sorts of things. That’s why we go to dinner as much as we can — to laugh and get away from basketball, enjoy each other. Find out what you did as a kid in high school. What makes you tick? What’s your fears? What are your insecurities? You find those things out when you spend time with people off the court.
3 Monte Poole’s piece after the Philly game was an avoidant exercise in damage-control and passive-tense b.s.
Poole has been subjected to considerable criticism this season… His decision-making is by turns proper and reckless. With the Warriors having a disappointing season, his inconsistencies often fall under the microscopes of fans and media
This prince of the press’s promo is a reminder that it’s now…proper to praise oneself:
Monte Poole is the foremost authority on the Golden State Warriors and a best-in-class columnist across sports and societal issues. He’s also a founding member and co-host of our groundbreaking series “Race In America: A Candid Conversation.”
4 That touch of grace happened in the first half of what will likely be the last game of Iguodala’s career as he went on to break his wrist in the second half of the contest.
5 A story from JP’s youth is on point here. When he was a kid, his father (who coached him and specialized in tough love) gave it to his son straight after a middling performance; Daddy Poole told him he might be able to play in Europe down the line, but he wasn’t going to make the NBA unless he changed his habits. JP wrote his dad’s words down and pinned them up on the door of his room, where they prodded him every day for a couple years. If I’d heard that story earlier this month, I might’ve had more faith JP would come through.
6 This video from the Warriors’ team trip to Japan last summer may be a little too cute. (And it’s not “hilarious”; is that word ever apt?) Still, can you imagine wanting to punch this kid? I’m aware Draymond came up hard, but damn…