Friday night’s contest between the Los Angeles Lakers and Memphis Grizzlies turned into an extremely exciting contest down the stretch. But well before then there was some buzz in the arena surrounding an altercation between NFL Hall of Famer and noted LeBron James fan Shannon Sharpe, and members of the Grizzlies team as well as Tee Morant, father of Grizzlies star Ja Morant.
Just as the teams were headed into the locker room for halftime, Sharpe and Grizzlies wing Dillon Brooks traded barbs, which led to some Grizzlies and Tee Morant going over to Sharpe’s courtside seat and security needing to step in between them, via Mirjam Swanson of the Southern California News Group:
Tempers flare in the front row here at the Crypt — where Shannon Sharpe, Steven Adams and Papa Tee Morant exchange words and have to be kept apart before heading off in opposite directions. pic.twitter.com/EtMiSDY3sv
— Mirjam Swanson (@MirjamSwanson) January 21, 2023
In the immediate aftermath, Sharpe was still fired up and gave his account of the situation to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin:
Shannon Sharpe spent halftime in the tunnel with security before returning to his seat for the third quarter. He granted ESPN a brief interview explaining what happened with the Grizzlies on his way to his seat: pic.twitter.com/XZNw6sQhEG
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) January 21, 2023
As a former athlete and noted trash-talker, Sharpe has never been one to hold his tongue. Brooks is also the Grizzlies’ top agitator and has never been one to hold his tongue so the two going back and forth is no surprise. Of course you never want things to escalate, but Sharpe was clearly not afraid.
A little later on, Tee Morant would tell TNT reporter Chris Haynes that everything was just fine between he and Sharpe:
Tee Morant — father of Ja Morant — tells @NBAonTNT / @BleacherReport he and Shannon Sharpe “are good” and has “nothing but love for him.” Said it’s just two guys from the South talking trash and supporting their teams.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) January 21, 2023
And just to ensure things were all good, Sharpe and Morant hugged it out in between the third and fourth quarters, via Nikki Kay of Spectrum SportsNet:
Update… Tee Morant and Shannon Sharpe are good. pic.twitter.com/fuB8lfV4b2
— Nikki Kay (@NikkiKaySN1) January 21, 2023
It was good to see cooler heads ultimately prevailing as things should never get that serious between courtside fans, and in the end, it was all love from everybody, expect Brooks who continued to talk spicy after the game:
Dillon Brooks had some spicy postgame comments: pic.twitter.com/nR8GwNaVDe
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) January 21, 2023
Naturally though, James sided with Sharpe when asked about it postgame
“I ride with Shannon 365 days, ‘66 on a leap year. So, that’s my guy. I always got his back and he’s got mine. He can talk with the best of ‘em,” James said.
Lakers complete comeback, snap Grizzlies 11-game win streak
And the most important thing for the Lakers is that came away with a huge one-point win over the Grizzlies who had won 11 consecutive games. Despite trailing by as many as 13, the Lakers would fight back to come away with a huge victory.
The game-winning points came courtesy of Dennis Schroder, who stripped Desmond Bane and converted a three-point play to put the Lakers ahead for good in the final seconds.
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