LOS ANGELES — Tempers flared immediately after the buzzer sounded in the second quarter in a Friday night game between the Memphis Grizzlies and Los Angeles Lakers when several members of the Grizzlies got involved in a shouting match with Pro Football Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe, who was seated near the court.
Referees and security intervened to settle the confrontation as a number of Grizzlies players – including Dillon BrooksAnd Stephen AdamsAnd Ja Morant and Morant’s father, T. Morant – they gathered on the sidelines opposite the bench at the Crypto.com Arena to get close to Sharpe.
Sharpe, who works as a commentator for Fox Sports, was escorted by security through the tunnel to the arena’s back porch, where he stayed for half of the first half before returning to his seat in the third quarter.
Part of Sharpe’s character on his show Undisputed celebrates his unabashed fandom of the Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James opposite his co-host, Skip Bayless, a notorious James critic. Sharp appeared on the show wearing a goat mask and James’ T-shirt, suggesting that James is the greatest player of all time, or a goat, in the NBA.
Sharpe gave ESPN a short interview as he returned to his seat before the start of the second half.
“They didn’t want that smoke, Dave,” said Sharpe. “They do all that talking and dueling and I’m not about that gambit. It started with Dillon Brooks. I said he’s too young to guard LeBron. He said, ‘I am.’ I said, ‘F– I’m back.'” He started coming up to me, and I said, “You don’t want these problems.” Then ja came out of nowhere talking sure he didn’t want these problems, then daddy came and obviously didn’t want any problems.
“But I wanted anything they had. Don’t let those fools fool you now.”
Cameras later showed Sharpe and Tee Morant shaking hands and hugging at the end of the third quarter. The two embrace again after the last bell.
“Shannon didn’t do anything,” Te Morant told ESPN. “Hey, he’s been doing like we’re doing in South Carolina. We’re talking about… South Carolina, whoa!”
James, who scored 23 points to tie within 260 points of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s scoring mark, said he appreciated Sharpe’s presence.
“I mean, I ride with Shannon 365 days, 366 in a leap year, 24/7,” James said after the game. “So, that’s my guy. So I’ll always have his back, and he’s with me. He can talk to the best of them for sure.”
However, some of the Grizzlies’ players were in a less jovial mood about the second round.
“I don’t talk about it,” said Brooks, who allegedly only told Sharpe that James missed a shot when he was guarding him. “You can ask him. It’s the blogger or whatever. I don’t really care about all that. Next question.”
When pressed if Sharpe’s behavior was appropriate for someone attending the game as a fan, Brooks did not back down.
Brock said, “Isn’t it normal like him? No.” “He should never have been back in the game. But this is Los Angeles.”
When Ja Morant was asked about Sharpe, he paused for about six seconds before speaking, then said, “Let me think,” and was silent for a few more seconds before answering.
“No,” he said, thinking better of the detail. “I’m not going to touch that. I’m going to let him live today.”
Memphis coach Taylor Jenkins also dodged a question about what happened with Sharpe and his team, simply saying, “I thought the Lakers played really well tonight.”
The Grizzlies lost 122-121 to snap their 11-game winning streak. Lakers guard Dennis Schroeder Bucket scored the game winning 7.6 seconds before the ball was stolen from him Desmond Bean Near center court and finishes in a layup and 1 layup.
“If we had followed our principles, we would have won the game by 15 points,” Brooks said.
Jenkins dismissed the importance of seeing the winning streak come just shy of setting a new franchise record.
“The disappointment is that we didn’t play to our standards. I don’t care about a streak,” he said. “Nobody should care about a streak. It’s about performing, being 100 [percent] There, they have the right mindset. … Going out there and beating the competition in every field is unacceptable.”