No, you did not read that headline incorrectly. Shannon Sharpe got into it at the Lakers game with the entire Memphis Grizzlies team and Ja Morant’s dad.
It all started with a spat between the Undisputed co-host and Dillon Brooks. Sharpe told Brooks he couldn’t guard LeBron James in a much less kind way. Brooks responded. Sharpe responded back and then things just unraveled from there.
What follows is everything we know so far about the incident. In the time since LeBron James has reacted, Dillion Brooks has also reacted and Sharpe peaced things up with Ja Morant’s dad.
This is just…a lot. So let’s dive in.
Wait, so how did this beef start?
So Dillon Brooks was guarding LeBron James and Shannon Sharpe essentially told him he couldn’t guard him.
They kept jawing back and forth with one another until this happened.
Here's video of the altercation between Shannon Sharpe, Dillon Brooks, Steven Adams, and Tee Morant pic.twitter.com/spC4PbP5vA
— eric (@EricTweetsNBA) January 21, 2023
Yikes. That's a whole bunch of people
Yup. There was a whole cast of characters involved in things after this. Steven Adams, Ja Morant, Tee Morant, Brooks, Sharpe and so many other people.
Here’s another angle.
not a single person in that skirmish made Steven Adams move an inch pic.twitter.com/WsgE2LCVd0
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) January 21, 2023
And here’s a better angle of Sharpe jawing at Tee Morant, who apparently was just trying to squash the whole thing.
Tee Morant vs Shannon Sharpe 👀 pic.twitter.com/uyqMyGtgfY
— NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) January 21, 2023
What a mess.
Did anyone say anything?
In the immediate aftermath at halftime, Sharpe went to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin for an interview to tell his side of the story.
In his words, “They didn’t want this smoke.”
Shannon Sharpe on the incident that occurred during Grizzlies-Lakers.
(via @mcten) pic.twitter.com/dyCSIshBCA
— ESPN (@espn) January 21, 2023
“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.”
Honestly, in the moment, this was pretty unbelievable to see. It was like a WWE promo or something. You definitely wouldn’t think this came from an NBA game.
But alas, here we are.
So did Sharpe return to the game?
After all this? Yes. He absolutely did. In fact, he eventually squashed things with Tee Morant.
It's all love between Shannon Sharpe and Tee Morant. pic.twitter.com/iSNeikINp1
— ESPN (@espn) January 21, 2023
He also was there for the final play of the game making calls for the officials from the sideline.
Shannon Sharpe made sure refs got the right call late out of bounds
Unc wasn't gonna let that slide 😭 pic.twitter.com/KyErAUkt75
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) January 21, 2023
What'd LeBron James have to say about this?
To put it simply, James defended his friend.
LeBron on Shannon Sharpe: “I ride with Shannon 365 days — 366 on a leap year — 24/7. So that’s my guy. I always got his back. And he’s got mine. He can talk with the best of them, for sure.” pic.twitter.com/bAHMuPZkix
— Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) January 21, 2023
“I ride with Shannon 365 days — 366 on a leap year — 24/7. So, that’s my guy. I always got his back and he’s got mine. He can talk with the best of ’em, for sure.”
Not totally unexpected here considering how Sharpe comes to James’ defense on Undisputed.
Did Dillon Brooks have anything to say?
Brooks and the entire Grizzlies team were wondering why Sharpe was allowed to stay in the game.
Dillon Brooks on if it was appropriate for Shannon Sharpe to have a back-and-forth with the Grizzlies: “A regular pedestrian like him? No. He shouldn’t have ever came back in the game. But it’s LA.” pic.twitter.com/tf2NFaXyqe
— Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) January 21, 2023
“Reporter: Do you think it’s appropriate for a fan to kind of go back and forth with you guys like that?
Brooks: A regular pedestrian like him? No. He shouldn’t have ever came back in the game. But it’s LA.”
We’ll see if anything else comes from this. What a ridiculous night in LA.
Wait...how did the game actually end?
In the most epic fashion! And no one is actually talking about it because of this.
Dennis Schoëder got a game-winning steal and score to give the Lakers the lead after they were down by double digits.
Game-winning steal *and* the game-winning score.
Take a bow, Dennis Schröder. pic.twitter.com/ALOBaq6XJN
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) January 21, 2023
And somehow this is secondary to, well, everything else you see above. This was a huge win for the Lakers, though. They needed this to climb back up in the standings.
Shannon Sharpe might have courtside seats forever after this one.
