We will probably never know a different Draymond Green; a man who, after all that, has brought his daily temperament down, and can now richly chuckle in reflection of all his youthful folly. Green has his own podcast, as you likely know, which causes him to speak in public for at least a consecutive hour or two, most weeks—this is not counting his appearances on other podcasts, standard obligatory NBA interviews, and all the time he spends as a broadcaster on TNT. Through none of these thousands of oratorical hours does a moment of conspicuous self-awareness come to mind. There is no “following the storm” meditation that anyone can recall. The Draymond torrent has always gone on, forward, away from pause or introspection.

Green’s latest loudness is as demonstrative as any from his long canon of blustery episodes. At a time when, by all indications, he should feel and express peace, he is instead as messily angry as ever before. Jordan Poole, his apparent interpersonal enemy, is off his team. Traded from the Golden State Warriors to the Washington Wizards for Chris Paul, Poole is the latest case study in what happens when you don’t do things in the Warrior Way, joining a party that includes Kelly Oubre, James Wiseman, and D’Angelo Russell. Those three proved incapable of learning Warriors stratagems fast enough, which was not as much of a struggle for Poole, who played a role in the team’s 2022 championship. He erred in a different way.

As the dust continues to clear on Poole’s exit, Draymond kicks it up anew, and what exactly happened between the two of them will always remain shrouded to some extent. But it is certain that the much older and larger Green swung at the jaw of Poole, who narrowly avoided a prolonged hospital visit in the dust-up between; we’ve seen the footage. Green missed zero games due to team suspension for the incident, and re-signed with the Warriors for $100 million this summer as Poole left. He unequivocally won the war. That doesn’t mean he’s done waging it, though.

In recent podcast episodes, Green has provided new discovery in the ongoing, informal public trial between him and Poole, which Poole has recused himself from. Poole’s father has gotten involved. The details of the continued trickle of defensive gossip are hearsay, battle-of-manners stuff ripped straight out of Jane Austen, and not exactly relevant—what’s notable is Green’s inability to let the occasion go. And that, shortly afterward, he was completely primed for a word skirmish with… Kevin Garnett? Garnett hadn’t done anything to Green, or said anything about him, but due to the informational crisis that is Elon Musk’s post-Twitter social media platform, there was the ficklest official appearance of Garnett questioning Green’s ethics. Green fired aggressively back at the vaporous, unconvincing hologram of Garnett—the internet equivalent of punching your way through a cloud so full-bodied that you stumble over yourself when you emerge out the other end of it. 

As many have said, the reckless, universal-beef Draymond warpath is inseparable from all the championship qualities he brings to his team: most importantly, his tremendous defensive instincts and his perhaps unparalleled personnel knowledge and on-court communication. There is, still, maybe no one better suited to lead a group blitz through the series of complicated pop quizzes that the NBA playoffs present. He hasn’t been able to score for half a decade, and is the undoubted modern king of the widely mocked “triple-single” category as a box score performer, but every shrewd observer who watched Golden State’s last championship knows that he still provides a singular edge.

Add in his eternal bond with Stephen Curry, and there’s no doubt that the Warriors are married to Draymond for as long as both he and this version of the team can stand straight. The podcasting will persist, plus all the farting rhetorical controversy that comes with it. It is a muddle that Golden State has learned to live with, and Poole’s departure makes it clear that any incoming talent must also accustom themselves to Green’s pique, or leave. This includes the famously prickly Paul, whose migration to his former rival is interesting for uncountable reasons, but arguably most of all because of the dramatic pregnancy between him and Green. “I’ve publicly said I don’t like Chris before,” Draymond recently said on, you guessed it, a podcast. We’ve experienced two careers worth of spectacle with Green already, but compelling chapters remain.