Wizards’ Jordan Poole Gets Brutally Honest About His Warriors Exit

During an interview with Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports, Jordan Poole talked about his exit from the Golden State Warriors and his fresh start with the Washington Wizards.

“Obviously, I wanted to be in a position to have my own team, and then if it did come, how would I go about that?” Poole told Yahoo Sports. “Luckily, I’m able to do that so young, after learning from some of the best. It’s cool. It’s a smooth transition. We’re building everything from scratch, essentially. Building up a new foundation. Everything in Golden State was already established, so we kinda had to fit into the mold that they have there.”

Poole was punched in the face by Draymond Green before the start of last season. The Warriors, who lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2023 Western Conference Semifinals in six games, traded Poole to the Wizards and signed Green to a new contract this past offseason.

“It’s a bit different, too, like, once your contract is signed and once you got a ring. Essentially everything that needed to be done in Golden State got done,” Poole said. “I got a ring. Made sure my family is straight. A good situation to come in [to Washington] and just kind of have my own team, play my own type of basketball.”

Poole helped the Warriors win the 2022 championship over the Boston Celtics in six games. The Michigan product signed a four-year, $128 million contract with Golden State in October 2022.

Poole and Kyle Kuzma are the best players on the Wizards. They are also the only players on the team with rings.

“We’re gonna bring our own little flair to the nation’s capital,” Poole said. “Definitely the main component is buckets.”