I meant by punches usually thrown in NBA scuffles that are usually glancing slaps. This was a full force punch that connected squarely.
If Draymond bellying up to Poole could be considered battery, why wouldn't Poole's shoving him away be considered self-defense?
That's because most fights in the NBA happen during games, and they don't have time to manifest into anything more than a weak scuffle. But fights during practice tend to be much worse. Someone already mentioned Zach Randolph breaking Ruben Patterson's face during practice. We know that Michael Jordan punched Steve Kerr. I'm sure there's probably hundreds of other examples that have happened over the years.
I'm not a lawyer, but I imagine a lawyer would argue it was an escalation. Poole could have backed away. He could have de-escalated the situation. Shoving Draymond clearly escalated it, and then Draymond escalated it further. I'll give you an example. If this happened outside, and Draymond got into his face and Poole shoved him. Draymond falls backwards, hits his head on a curb and dies (this has literally happened to people.) Poole is going to jail. Was he justified in pushing someone away from him? Maybe, and maybe he didn't intend for any harm to come to him, but that doesn't really matter in the eyes of the law.
I don't throw punches but in a general sense people can throw two kinds of punches. One is a punch to make a point the other is a punch with malice meant to injure someone badly and when thrown to the face it's meant to knock someone out. I would hope that a punch thrown by one teammate at another would be to show that the teammate throwing the punch had had enough of the other guy (or in other words just to make a point) not to seriously hurt his teammate. Draymond's punch was thrown to do damage and shut Poole's lights out... that's reckless. So if you're fighting with someone to protect yourself because they intend to hurt you seriously, yeah you better put your weight behind it but if you're just some hothead in a controlled environment popping off because someone said something you don't like and you lack self control then you might push a jabbing or slapping punch out there (you can call it a fake one).
I mean.... there's jabs which are meant to stun. Usually thrown with an off hand. Untrained people tend to throw haymakers. They're actually NOT that powerful because they lack form and if the other person is ready for it, you are off balance and can get your ass kicked. A trained fighter can throw their body weight behind a punch without literally launching their whole body. I used to train with a buddy who was a pro MMA fighter. He taught me some basics. You can pretty much put your weight behind a punch just by turning your body and hit with just as much force as what Draymond just did, but with more precision and control. This is something that happened in a split second. Tempers flared. I doubt anyone was thinking clearly.
I'm not a lawyer either, but I believe self-defense is intended only when you are in danger of death or significant harm. I suppose Poole could argue the bump made him fearful for his life, but that would probably be a stretch. Draymond certainly better hope Poole doesn't get charged because that would almost certainly mean he'll get charged as well.
All I think about with these types of stories is how nice it is that they no longer involve our Blazers. Draymond doing this? Not shocking at all. Are they perhaps too nice? You could certainly make the argument there needs to be some form of "craziness" on a team, but I'm glad we're not talking about how this will effect one of our young player's psyche moving forward.
credit to Dame. 10 yrs and the worst we've had is ET or Moe griping about the coach, or Nurk pouting. But camaraderie has been excellent. Shaedon could not have landed in a better environment to grow.
Damn that was a hell of a punch. Wrong guy to talk shut too. That use to be the way the NBA ran run mouth get knocked out
I said same thing Last year. Klay got so frustrated from this kid he was a black hole and often froze Klay out on offense
