Pro Football Hall of Famer and Fox personality Shannon Sharpe appeared to spark an altercation with the entire Memphis Grizzlies team and Tee Morant on Friday night during their game against the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena.
Sharpe was sitting courtside at the game when the altercation started just before halftime. Both Ja Morant and Dillon Brooks were seen talking at Sharpe as they started walking off the court for the locker rooms. Before they got to the tunnel, however, things erupted.
Almost the entire Grizzlies bench, led by 6-foot-11 center Steven Adams, suddenly charged at Sharpe — which prompted security to jump in and try to hold them back.
Tee Morant, Ja's father, then came up to Sharpe and the larger group from the side, and the two had to be separated by security. Sharpe and the elder Morant were then walked off the floor in different directions by security, but both returned to their seats for the second half.
If you prefer your NBA game focus on the on-court matchup featuring Ja Morant and LeBron James, the Grizzlies' winning streak and James’ pursuit of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time scoring record, then the game wasn’t for you.
The main takeaway from Friday’s game between the two teams wasn’t Los Angeles’ 122-121 victory, ending Memphis' 11-game winning streak and James now trailing Abdul-Jabbar by 260 points.
In a brief interview with ESPN at halftime, Sharpe said: “They didn't want this smoke, Dave. They do that talking and jockeying and I ain't about that jockeying. It started with Dillon Brooks. I said he was too small to guard LeBron. He said, '(expletive) me. I said, '(expletive) you’ back. He started to come (at) me and I said, ‘You don't want these problems.’ And then Ja came out of nowhere talking. He definitely didn't want these problems. Then the dad came and he obviously didn't want no problems. But I wanted anything they had. Don let these fools fool you now.”
ESPN play-by-play announcer Mike Breen chimed in with the most reasonable analysis: “It’s just silly.”
At the end of the second quarter, Grizzlies forward Dillon Brooks and Sharpe were arguing as the teams were heading to the locker room. Brooks’ teammate Steven Adams went to confront Sharpe along with a few players before Tee Morant, the father of Grizzlies point guard Ja Morant, got into a heated exchange and had to be broken up by security.
Sharpe was taken to the tunnel as an attempt to diffuse the situation and spoke to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin about the situation saying the situation was started by Brooks.
“They didn’t want this smoke,” Sharpe told McMenamin at halftime. “They do all that talking and jockeying and I ain’t about that jockeying. It started with Dillon Brooks. I said he was too small to guard LeBron. He said, “F—‘ me. I said ‘F—‘ you back. “He started to come at me and I said, ‘You don’t want these problems.’ And then Ja came out of nowhere talking. He definitely didn’t want these problems. Then the dad came and he obviously didn’t want no problems. But I wanted anything they had. Don’t let these fools fool you now.”
Sharpe was allowed to return to his seat for the second half and hugged Tee Morant at the conclusion of the third quarter.
Morant’s father, Tee, who was sitting next to the Grizzlies bench, beelined toward Sharpe and tried to circumvent security before being stopped by referee Zach Zarba. Sharpe yelled, “I bet you won’t!” toward Tee Morant multiple times.
Within seconds, the Grizzlies bench cleared in one of the more wild and bizarre player-fan (and celebrity) interactions in recent memory.
