SI

NBA World Reacts to Shannon Sharpe, Tee Morant Incident

A shocking scene broke out at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday night between the former NFL star, the Grizzlies and Ja Morant’s father.

Zach Koons

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A shocking scene broke out at Friday’s Lakers-Grizzlies game at Crypto.com Arena when a number of high-profile personalities, both on the court and on the sideline, got into a heated verbal confrontation at the start of halftime.

Following the end of the second quarter, former NFL star and Fox Sports host Shannon Sharpe, a number of Memphis players and Ja Morant’s father, Tee, got into a shouting match and needed to be physically separated by security, referees and team staff. It’s unclear exactly what led to the start of the altercation, but video showed Grizzlies forward Dillon Brooks and center Stephen Adams yelling in Sharpe’s direction before being joined by Ja Morant and eventually, Ja’s father.

Sharpe was escorted by security into the tunnel where he remained throughout halftime before eventually returning to his seat for the third quarter. On his way back to his seat, the Fox Sports personality spoke with ESPN’s Dave McMenamin about what transpired.

“They didn’t want this smoke, Dave,” Sharpe said. “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 and Tee Morant appeared to clear the air at the end of the third quarter and again after the final buzzer, shaking hands and embracing.

The bizarre and seemingly incomprehensible incident was the talk of the NBA world on Friday night as many fans and media members took to social media to give their thoughts on the events in downtown Los Angeles.

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Zach Koons
ZACH KOONS

Zach Koons is a programming editor at Sports Illustrated who frequently writes about Formula One. He joined SI as a breaking/trending news writer in February 2022 before joining the programming team in 2023. Koons previously worked at The Spun and interned for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He currently hosts the "Bleav in Northwestern" podcast and received a bachelor's in journalism from Northwestern University.

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