He was a high school classmate of Zhang Zhenlin and was once hailed as Curry's successor. From the cornerstone of the Warriors' team to the bench of the Wizards, anxious teenagers need to settle down.
In this season's NBA, perhaps everyone has forgotten that there is also Jordan Poole. After trading to the Wizards, no one would have thought that the performance of this champion guard, who had just won a contract of 100 million yuan, would become so unsightly after leaving the Warriors. Jordan Poole, who has a heart higher than the sky, is unconvinced by anyone on the basketball court, and he is desperate to prove himself and be the heart of the team.
Poole's development was very late, he was only 1.7 meters tall and weighed 50 kilograms when he was a freshman in high school. Compared to those talented players who killed in high school, Poole's talent is very average, and although he entered the varsity team, he often sat on the cold bench. Until one game, when the team was trailing by 3 points with only 15 seconds left, the coach looked around the bench and finally replaced Poole, who everyone remembered as only shooting.
The super-confident Poole came on and scored the fatal blow in the final 3.6 seconds to help his team win. That summer, Poole's teammates Jaren Jackson Jr. and Brian Ball II both received invitations to participate in the McDonald's All-American High School Invitational Tournament, including Ayton, Trae Young, Porter Jr. and other stars. But Poole didn't get the invitation, and he was a little disappointed. The American media is not optimistic about this thin guard who can only shoot basketballs, and ESPN has a four-star high school score of only 86 points on him. In high school, Poole showed great talent in basketball, and he was named a four-star high school player on ESPN's high school list. In 2017, he teamed up with Jaren Jackson Jr. to win the National High School League championship over Barrett's Montverde High School.
Before entering the NBA, Poole has been a key winner on the court, and he has played countless key shots. The 21-22 season can be said to be a season that Poole has been looking forward to. After training hard, he ushered in an outbreak. On the court, it exists like Curry, with outside three-pointers up and down, and they are deadly. And the ghostly pace and unique dribbling skills make him a powerful weapon for the Warriors to enter the enemy penalty area. Averaging 18.5 points and 4 assists per game in the regular season, Poole is fully capable of starting off the bench, but the Warriors' merit basketball won't allow that. In the finals, Poole's many over-three-point whistles made Golden State Arena fall into a boiling carnival, and Curry and Poole looked at each other and smiled. Curry's successor, the future of the Warriors, seems to have been defined at that moment. It is undeniable that if it weren't for Jordan Poole's super performance, maybe the Warriors that year would not have been able to easily defeat the Green Army in the Finals and win the championship. As the team's key scorer, Jordan Poole is definitely an important contributor to the Warriors' championship. But Poole's hubrist ambition and courage to challenge authority seem to have come a little too soon.
In the season after winning the championship, in the Warriors' training camp, Poole found that his record for the Warriors' first free throw shooting percentage was overtaken by Curry, and he punished himself for having to make 100 consecutive free throws. In another game, the Warriors were given a free throw for a technical foul, and Poole didn't hesitate to step to the free throw line, but Big Brother Curry pushed him away. In Golden State, even as Curry ages, his status is irreplaceable, a symbol of the team and a symbol of power.
In the offseason of '22, Poole just signed a four-year, $140 million contract extension with the Warriors. Let the young Jordan Poole be complacent. However, a punch from Draymond Green clashed and drove away the teenager who had been in high spirits. Poole was reluctant to leave the Warriors, but he was not sad about leaving the Warriors. Because the land of Golden State only belongs to Curry and his iron triangle. He doesn't want to tie himself to Golden State, and he is still on a four-year, $128 million contract with the Washington Wizards. He wants to be the boss of the Wizards, and he wants to prove to the blind date parents in Golden State that you abandoned me and made the wrong choice.
But Poole, who left the Warriors, seems to have become a laughing stock. In one game, he can contribute countless outrageous operations and famous scenes. Flipping his wrists, three non-sticks, taking off, and all kinds of bizarre mistakes have become his highlights. When you see him playing, you have a feeling of how he managed to be so confident and so crotch-pulling. After being traded to the Wizards, Garnett once said to the outside world: "After Jordan Poole leaves the Warriors, he will become the next James Harden, he will become the top five scorers in the league, and I will be very surprised if he doesn't get 60+ this season."
But it's not just Garnett? At the press conference to join the Wizards, Poole was smiling, and he looked very calm when he had just been traded, as if nothing had happened. Jordan Poole talks eloquently, like a boss. For the new season, he chose the No. 13 jersey that Harden wore with the Rockets, and in the ruins of Washington, D.C., he looked like he was going to be the king here. No one in the locker room dared to go against Poole, and his teammates respected him very much. After all, a year ago, Poole was an important scorer for a championship team, and his four-year, $128 million contract was the highest on the Wizards' team.
But what did Jordan Poole do? It's only been half a month since he joined the team, and during a game pause, the coach was laying out tactics, but Poole was not involved. After repeated reminders from the assistant coach and teammates, he said impatiently, this is my team, I understand. Toward the end of the game, he went back to peek at the tactical board, and after 32 regular-season games, he had the league's lowest plus/minus, accumulating -328. His true shooting percentage is only better than Henderson of the Trail Blazers, and he ranks second to last.
The wind of the winter of 24 years blew away the midsummer of 22 years. thought that when he arrived at the Wizards, he could prove himself with unlimited firing rights, but after leaving the Warriors, he fell into a trough overnight. Or maybe he will never forget that punch, and he desperately wants to prove himself, but he can't eat hot tofu in a hurry. After that, Jordan's average shots per game became less and less, and the Wizards' record got worse and worse, and the coach even put him on the bench.
The Wizards lost patience with him, and the management originally thought that they would get a Stephen Curry, but they didn't expect it to be a big and smelly contract. The Wizards' record this season has reached 15-64, which is destined to create the worst record in team history. It is worth mentioning that Poole came to the Wizards last summer and saw the team set the worst record in franchise history in his first year with the team. And if you watch the Wizards' games this season, you know where the fans' boos for Poole are coming from. It's not the brainless mistake, it's not the three points of the iron, but the helplessness of hating iron and not steel.
Maybe that cup of tea has never been brewed, and it is the system characteristic of the Golden State Warriors that made the young Jordan Poole. And from Poole's body, I'm sure you also see who you used to be. The boy who desperately wants to make a name for himself and prove everyone else wrong. Work hard where no one cares, and shine where everyone is watching. But the boy was too anxious, and his impetuous mood was like grains of sand in a strong wind, making it impossible for him to see the road ahead. Perhaps it wasn't until the end that the teenager understood that Jordan was just his name and Poole was his last name.