The Memphis Grizzlies had a heated series against the Golden State Warriors during the second round of the 2022 playoffs. The series featured a lot of physicality from both sides, and we saw key players end up getting injured.
Ja Morant got injured in Game 3 of that series after Jordan Poole seemingly took a swipe at his knee. After the game, Ja Morant sent out a Tweet that stated: "broke the code". The Tweet was obviously suggesting that Jordan Poole committed a dirty play in that instance. He notably deleted it very quickly after posting it.
Recently, Ja Morant opened up on that situation, claiming that he was "frustrated" about how he got hurt and then deleted the Tweet because his mom suggested it. Morant also gave props to Jordan Poole and the rest of the Warriors' roster for checking in on him, and claimed that at the end of the day, players "care for each other" and "want everybody to succeed". Tristi Rodriguez of NBC Sports relayed the news.
“Obviously, I was frustrated how I got hurt. I sent the tweet,” Morant told Rooks. “I actually -- once again, my mom came into play like, ‘No, delete it.’ Then I seen people start trying to talk trash like, ‘Oh, you delete it.’ You saw at that time, I probably would have got fined for stuff I said, but I had to take that into consideration. But it's all good. I ain't tripping on that no more.”
“Even when we were back at Golden State when I was walking on the court, [Poole] asked me was I good? Dapped me up. Even some of their other players asked me on the side as well … That’s what it’s all about. We all at the end of the day, care for each other, all want everybody to succeed. So I don’t think there’s too much dirty players in this league to go and do anything,” Morant explained.
“But after that, frustrated, in pain, not knowing what the results was going to be at the time. My mind pretty much was all over the place. So there’s a lot of frustration that went into that and then after the first incident where everybody was trying to bash my teammate not even knowing that he apologized and stuff like he didn’t mean to do it, that went into play, too.”
It is fantastic to see that Ja Morant and Jordan Poole have no outstanding beef over that incident. It seems as though the knee swipe was an accident, and Ja Morant himself states that there is not a big number of "dirty players" in the NBA.
Ja Morant will have a chance to make a deep playoff run with the Memphis Grizzlies next season. Hopefully, he is able to avoid accidents like this next year, and it'll be interesting to see how far Morant can take his team in the postseason.
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