Fact Check: Has Draymond Green been arrested? Viral LeBron James disrespect video debunked
A video that allegedly showed Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green being arrested made it's way around X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday, September 3.
The report claimed Draymond Green 'backhanded' a bartender for disrespecting LeBron James. This was a claim aiming to poke fun at Green's close friendship with the NBA superstar.
However, the report is untrue and came from a parody account posing as a popular NBA news account.
'The Hoop Centrol,' is the account that posted the video, which doesn't show Green's face and is filmed some distance away. The account is in close likeness to 'The Hoops Central,' which has 1.2 million followers on the popular social media platform.
Still, when scrolling through social media, it's easy to be fooled by the parody account due to its close likeness. This led to the viral video being seen as genuine news by some.
To reiterate, Draymond Green has not been arrested and the footage in the video was of somebody else being detained by the police.
Parody accounts are becoming increasingly common on social media, especially after the launch of 'X Premium' and 'Meta Premium.' Both provide the opportunity for users to pay a subscription fee to have an account verified, along with additional benefits.
Draymond Green was notably involved in an unsavory incident last summer, when he assaulted his then-teammate Jordan Poole during a team practice. That may have been a reason for so many NBA fans being fooled by the fake report.
Warriors owner reveals reason behind Jordan Poole being traded following incident with Draymond Green
Throughout the 2022-23 NBA season, the Golden State Warriors seemingly struggled to overcome the incident between Draymond Green and Jordan Poole. As such, they failed to defend their 2022 championship, losing to the LA Lakers in the second round of the playoffs.
Warriors owner Joe Lacob recently appeared on "The TK Show" with The Atheltic's Tim Kawakami. Lacob explained how Poole ended up being the 'odd man out' this summer, which led him to be traded to the Washington Wizards.
“I think it’s fair to say that there was some level of concern going forward, whether that was going to be something that would work out. To be honest with you, I think it would have worked out and could have worked out,” Lacob told Kawakami.
“But I think it is fair to say that in order to make the team work next year, to make the numbers work and so on, someone probably was gonna be the odd man out. It just turned out—and it wasn’t planned—that it was Jordan.”
Green may have a reputation for being a demanding teammate and has a history of altercations with players around the NBA. However, the veteran forward isn't likely to assault random people in the street.
With that being said, we can now file the viral video under 'never happened' and continue enjoying the offseason before training camp begins.