Shannon Sharpe in altercation with Grizzlies bench, Ja Morant’s dad: ‘They didn’t want the smoke’
It appears Shannon Sharpe, the Fox Sports personality, was making his opinion known Friday night at the Lakers-Grizzlies game, and the Memphis team, along with Ja Morant’s dad, Tee, took issue.
Sharpe was sitting courtside when an altercation started just before halftime. Both Ja Morant and Dillon Brooks were seen yelling at Sharpe while they started walking off the court.
The Grizzlies bench appeared to charge at Sharpe before security intervened.
Tee Morant was seen coming up to Sharpe and the larger altercation from the side, and the two had to be separated by security.
The cause of the altercation, at least from Sharpe’s point of view, was incredibly stupid.
Sharpe told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin that the fight first started after Sharpe told Brooks he “was too small to guard LeBron (James).”
“They didn’t want this smoke, Dave,” Sharpe told ESPN. “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, (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’t let these fools fool you now.”
Mark Heim is a sports reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim.