It was a heated scene in Memphis on Friday as Ja Morant and Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez got caught in a heated engagement during the game. Down the stretch of the fourth quarter, after Morant was chirping at the Nets bench, he appeared to stare down coach Fernandez as if he had started some beef.
Ja Morant talks smack to Jordi Fernandez’s face. Jordi stares him down pic.twitter.com/mAjKYdRK7F
— Anthony Puccio (@APOOCH) December 14, 2024
At the end of the game, coach Taylor Jenkins and several players were hit with technical fouls as both sides continued to jaw at each other after the final buzzer.
End of game:
– Ja Morant talking to Nets bench again
– Taylor Jenkins pulls him away, tells Jordi, "we're good, we're good."
– Dennis Schröder approaches Jenkins with some words
– Jenkins says "you're gonna let him fucking talk to me like that…what the fuck?" pic.twitter.com/GBWfMJ0wFm
— Lucas Kaplan (@LucasKaplan_) December 14, 2024
Nobody knows yet what is going on between Morant and Fernandez but they both spoke about the incident after the game and provided more clarification on what exactly went down. According to Morant, he was just trying to get a rise out of the coach, which clearly worked effectively.
“I was trolling, just to get them riled up, and I did,” said Morant via Erik Slater. “it ain’t too much on my side. I even told the coach that I was trolling so he was good. I didn’t say anything crazy. If you look at the video, I was just saying ‘Yeah.’ If ‘yeah’ is disrespectful or makes you feel some type of way, then hey, so be it.”
While Morant tried to play down the incident, coach Fernandez was very serious about the moment and called out Morant for being “disrespectful” to the game.
“I will never speak to other players and I don’t want them to speak to me,” said the Nets head coach. “If they want to be nice, obviously, it’s part of the game but I don’t want any interaction. I think it’s disrespectful and it’s not part of the game. And that’s what we are projecting to everybody else, especially the little ones. Play with respect for the game.”
To Coach Fernandez’s credit, it is highly unusual for players to interact with the opposing team’s coach mid-game. It’s even weirder to talk trash to them specifically after a big play like Ja did toward the end of this game.
There’s nothing in the rules against this behavior but most players would avoid it just out of sheer respect for the profession and out of a desire to follow longstanding NBA tradition. Of course, Morant and the Grizzlies have never been known for their humility.
When the Memphis Grizzlies are successful, they like to remind everyone by talking trash and “trolling” the opponent in a public display of dominance. They’ve been called out on it before and Morant has gotten into a lot of trouble for his over-aggressive and out-of-control behavior in the past.
While this is far from crossing any of those lines, it’s evidence that the Grizzlies still carry some of that old baggage that nearly tore the team apart once before.
If Ja isn’t careful, he could find himself back in a risky situation with his image and that’s the last thing he needs as he tries to lead the Grizzlies on a title run. At 18-8 and 2nd in the West, they have a chance to pull off something special if they can avoid sabotaging their own success.
After tonight’s win, the Grizzlies will move on to Cryto.com arena to face the Los Angeles Lakers at 9:30 PM EST. After the NBA Emirates Cup finals, the Memphis Grizzlies are scheduled to play the Warriors at 8:00 PM EST at FedExForum.
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