Tempers reached an all-time high during Friday's game between the Memphis Grizzlies and Los Angeles Lakers as Hall of Fame football player Shannon Sharpe and Ja Morant's father had to be separated by security.
At the end of the second quarter, Grizzlies forward Dillon Brooks and Sharpe were arguing as the teams were heading to the locker room. Brooks' teammate Steven Adams went to confront Sharpe along with a few players before Tee Morant, the father of Grizzlies point guard Ja Morant, got into a heated exchange and had to be broken up by security.
Sharpe was taken to the tunnel as an attempt to diffuse the situation and spoke to ESPN's Dave McMenamin about the situation saying the situation was started by Brooks.
"They didn't want this smoke," Sharpe told McMenamin at halftime. "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 was allowed to return to his seat for the second half and hugged Tee Morant at the conclusion of the third quarter.
Speaking on the NBA on TNT broadcast, Tee Morant said that he and Sharpe were good and he "had nothing but love for him," and that it was just a passionate exchange between two people who were supporting their teams.
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