In the NBA, there’s no question that there are times where things get heated, and players get into minor altercations on the court. Most of those times, things don’t get overly physical.
During the Memphis Grizzlies-Chicago Bulls game, Tony Bradley and Ja Morant got in an altercation after Bradley tripped Morant by accident. Luckily, the two didn’t take any shots at each other, as center Steven Adams carried Tony Bradley away to avoid any physicality.
It was definitely good to see Steven Adams intervene and protect his teammate. By doing that, he also avoided an escalation happening in the situation. Steven Adams is well-known as one of the league’s strongest players, and he clearly recognized his strength was needed. From the video, we can also see star DeMar DeRozan calming Ja Morant down a little bit, so he played a role in diffusing the situation as well. There is no question that there’s no place for physical violence in the game.
It was clear that Ja Morant wasn’t just going to take the physicality from Tony Bradley though, as he was spotted saying “I can fight” after the incident. Ja Morant also commented on the video of him saying that he can also do “something else”.
& something else 😮💨 https://t.co/2GO5ReTviH
— Ja Morant (@JaMorant) January 17, 2022
The Memphis Grizzlies ended up defeating the Chicago Bulls, making it 4 losses in a row for the Chicago based team. There’s no doubt that this was a good matchup between two teams that are currently viewed as contenders. While neither are viewed to be the favorites in their respective conferences, it is clear that both teams have stellar talent on the roster.
Hopefully, the league can avoid altercations like this in the future. At the end of the day, both teams should just play some good basketball, and that should be the primary objective when teams face off against one another.
