Fox Sports personality and former NFL tight end Shannon Sharpe had to be separated from Grizzlies players and Ja Morant’s father, Tee, at halftime of a game between Memphis and the Lakers on Friday night.
In video of the incident, Grizzlies player Dillon Brooks can be seen yelling in Shannon’s direction as he walked back to the Grizzlies bench. Shannon had been criticizing Dillon, and the rest of the Grizzlies players on his popular daily television show.
Shannon, who was a fan at the game, yelled back at Dillon Brooks, motioning for him to come toward him. Grizzlies center Steven Adams then approached Shannon, and the altercation grew increasingly heated as other players followed. Sharpe was sitting court-side.
In the melee, Tee Morant then walked toward Sharpe, and appeared to exchange words. As Tee Morant was whisked away by security, Shannon shouted and pointed in his direction as he attempted to approach Shannon, but he also was stopped by security.
You would think that Shannon would be apologetic – for causing all that commotion at an NBA game. But NOPE, he wasn’t.
“They didn’t want this smoke,” Sharpe told ESPN after the incident. “They do all that talking and jockeying and I ain’t about the jockeying. It started with Dillon Brooks. I said he was too small to guard LeBron. He said ‘F–k’ me I said, ‘F–k’ 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.”
After the game, Dillion Brooks was asked about the confrontation with Shannon. Dillion told the interviewer that what Shannon did was inexcusable.
“A regular pedestrian like him? No. He should have never come back into the game, but it’s LA,” Brooks said.
Ja Morant and Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins refused to discuss the incident after the Lakers rallied for a 122-121 victory and snapped Memphis’ 11-game winning streak. Morant scored 22 points, while Brooks scored nine points on just 4-17 shooting from the field.