Who Leaked the (Draymond – Poole) Video?
Perspective from a NBA Video Coordinator
According to ESPN sources in an article by Ramona Shelburne and Adrian Wojnarowski, “The Golden State Warriors are taking "every legal course of action" to discover how video of Draymond Green punching Jordan Poole during a scuffle at practice Wednesday was made public.”
And some sentiment such as that by Richard Jefferson say that the entire video staff should be fired.
For those who would like to throw the Video Coordinators under the bus, let me tell you how video works.
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First of all, there are three different kinds of video at practice at any given time. There is the video that the team’s Video Coordinators control which is called a ‘Coach’s Feed.’ It has elevated stationary cameras to get a view of the whole court or half court. There is the team’s media / social media team that is filming parts of practice with cameras they have brought in. And there are stationary security cameras.
This gives 3 separate groups with access to video from different angles. And each of those 3 groups has multiple layers.
The ‘Coach’s Feed’ can also be a live feed for scouts and front office members that are not present at practice. Upon completion of practice, it’s likely that all of the coaches and possibly some (or all) players also got access to the video from the ‘Coach’s Feed.’ If you’re a Video Coordinator, you’re likely not saying ‘no’ to a coach or player if they ask for something. If there was an incident that took place when I was a Video Coordinator, the coaches, players, front office, and medical teams would immediately be in my office requesting the video to be uploaded to their iPad.
Another group often has access to a live-stream as well… owners.
The owners is an interesting situation because often, owners have their own media team as well. Practice can be live-streamed to the ownership group which can include anyone an owner wants (son, daughter, friend, etc), because no one says no to an owner. A live-stream could go from the Practice Facility to the Owner’s media team to anyone the Ownership group allows access. As soon as the Ownership group heard what happened, if they weren’t watching live, I am sure they were also looking at the video… and potentially sharing it with those close to them.
I was sideline pre-game for a Warriors / Blazers Playoff game where one of the team’s owners was standing on the court, FaceTiming his son, standing next to Damian Lillard as he warmed up… showing his son how close to the action he was. Owners have unlimited access and rarely any repercussions which should make anyone in that group (or that group’s group) a potential culprit of the leak.
The current (TMZ) angle was likely not from the business side (media) due to its quality and resolution, but that does not mean they don’t have access to the video in another format. This is a team’s media department, this would not include local media and national media, they are typically not allowed into a practice until towards the very end or after it’s over. But those from the team’s media side are regularly at practice gathering content for team videos and the team’s social media.
It also, very well, could be a security camera. In that case, it’s possible, the head of security and all of the security team would have access.
In whatever format, the front office would certainly request access to evaluate what happened and the appropriate response. The medical staff would want access to evaluate potential injuries and harm to Jordan. And the Coaching staff would want access… because they’re going to want access to anything associated with the team.
All this means, even in a controlled environment, there are likely to be dozens and dozens, if not even upwards of 100, with access to the footage.
It’s unlikely a Video Coordinator, member of the Coaching Staff, Front Office, or Security would leak the video directly to TMZ (unless someone really was bent on getting rid of Draymond). Confidentiality is in the fabric of their jobs. And they would all know how easy it would be to be tracked down. But an innocent share of the video or someone outside of basketball operations could make very likely candidates for the leak.
It’s never as simple as tracking down one video guy who recorded practice. If those, like Richard, want to fire an entire Video staff, they should probably fire a handful of other departments and change ownership groups as well.