Shannon Sharpe and the Memphis Grizzlies got into it on Friday night. What was going on there?
Did you have “Ja Morant’s dad gets into a shouting match with a celebrity courtside during a Lakers game” on your 2023 bingo card? Go ahead and stamp that square if you did!
The Lakers came away with a win on Friday night, 122-121 thanks to 52 combined points between Russell Westbrook (29) and LeBron James (23), but the star incident of the night was Shannon Sharpe and basically anyone involved with the Grizzlies getting into a shouting match.
What happened between Shannon Sharpe and Grizzlies at Lakers game?
Here’s a video of the events:
As far as we can tell, Sharpe and Dillon Brooks get into a shouting match. Then, Steven Adams steps in to stand up for Brooks and confront Sharpe’s attitude. The Kiwi had to be restrained by multiple people and Sharpe was escorted off the floor to defuse the situation, but on the way out, Morant’s dad, Tee Morant, got into it with Sharpe.
Who is Tee Morant?
Tee Morant is Ja Morant’s father. Very close with his son, Tee is at almost all if not all of the Grizzlies games to support Ja.
Tee’s presence at games is almost always wholesome. One time he helped Ja connect with some fans he was talking to courtside via FaceTime after an ejection.
But first and foremost Tee is a supporter of the team and his son, and he clearly took exception to whatever it is that Sharpe said.
Shannon Sharpe’s explanation of the events
Here’s what Sharpe told ESPN reporter Dave McMenamin shortly after the event:
“They didn’t want this smoke, Dave. 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.”
So, in short: No one but Shannon Sharpe wanted the problems at hand. Got it.
Shannon Sharpe and Tee Morant squash the beef
Just as soon as it had started, it was over. Tee and Shannon embraced and appeared to atone their issues in the second half of the game.
Players respond to the Shannon Sharpe incident
“I ain’t talking about that, you can ask him. He’s the blogger, whatever he is. I don’t really care about all that,” Dillon Brooks said. He also called Sharpe, “a regular pedestrian.”
“I ride with Shannon 365 days, 36 on a leap year, 24/7. So that’s my guy. I always got his back and he’s got mine. He can talk with the best of them, for sure,” LeBron said on the incident.