The Golden State Warriors defeated the Memphis Grizzlies to take a 2-1 lead in the series on Saturday, and this may not have been the only loss Memphis suffered. Ja Morant limped off the court with obvious discomfort in his right knee at 6:19 in the fourth quarter and did not return, and the Grizzlies are pretty adamant that Jordan Poole is to blame for Morant’s potential injury.
The game in question happened just over seven minutes before the game. Morant turned out to be a double team near half a court from Poole and Andrew Wiggins. Poole shot the ball, and as Morant and Wiggins struggled for possession, Poole clearly grabbed Morant’s right knee and pulled him back.
You can see on the screen overlay that Morant tweets “break the code” in a clear shot of Steve Kerr hitting Dylan Brooks’s “he broke the code” right and left since Brooks pulled out an airborne Gary Payton II that broke his elbow at the beginning of game 2 with a wild swing to the head. Morant quickly deleted the tweet, but Grizzlies’ feelings about Poole’s game are clear.
“We just watched the replay,” Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins told reporters. “He was going after a dribble and Jordan Poole actually grabbed his knee and pulled him, which caused anything to happen, so I’ll actually be very curious what happens next.”
Jenkins said the Grizzlies would consider the league considering Poole’s actions, given that the act may prove worthy of removal, as was the case with Brooks, who was penalized for Game 3 after hitting Peyton.
Of course, everyone with the Warriors laughs at the idea that what Poole has done can be considered a dirty game. Stephen Curry said he was not joking that Morant could be hurt, but that there was “no comparison” between what Poole had done, what Curry said was “nothing malicious” and what Brooks had done to Peyton. , adding that the assumption that Poole did something dirty is “full BS.”
So here’s the deal: it’s not BS. You can’t watch this video and come to any conclusions except that Poole definitely grabbed Morant’s knee and pulled him back. Was he trying to hurt Morant? I seriously doubt it. I guess Poole threw the ball and in an impulsive attempt to prevent Morant from recovering it, thus giving his teammate, Andrew Wiggins, a better shot, he grabbed Morant’s knee to hold it.
If Poole had grabbed Morant’s shirt and pulled him back, it would have been a foul. But he didn’t grab his shirt. He grabbed his knee. Then he pulled. This is dangerous. There are no two ways to do this.
Please check the checkbox to confirm that you want to subscribe.
Thank you for registering!
Keep track of your inbox.
I’m sorry!
There was an error processing your subscription.
Intention to injure is not the issue here. Brooks almost certainly had no intention of hurting Peyton either. He saw a man stabbing and wanted to stop him from doing it. He made a wild attempt in an attempt to prevent an opponent from scoring a goal without injuring the man. But he hurt him. He took that risk when he decided to swing close to a man’s head. Speeding down the highway and getting into an accident that hurts someone is to blame for your reckless actions, even though you didn’t mean to hurt them in the first place.
So far, we hope Morant is not hurt. If so, we don’t even know for sure if this is the game that caused the injury. Maybe it was a possession before.
After all, it doesn’t matter if grabbing Poole’s knee is actually what hurt Morant’s knee, or potentially worsening a previous injury, or even if Morant is without an injury, which we will all hopefully do. All that matters is what Poole did and the potential he had to hurt an opposing player. Knees are no joke. You can’t grab and pull your knees. You can clearly see Morant’s knee bending in the wrong direction.
Players do this kind of impulsive thing from time to time when trying to gain possession or often when desperately trying to avoid losing possession. Earlier in the game, Desmond Bain lost the ball and in an attempt to prevent Poole from recovering, he plunged headlong into Poole’s knees.
Earlier in the series, Morant was removed from the dribble and swung his knee straight into Curry’s knee and tripped him.
Again, these are impulsive plays that happen more than you think. Grayson Allen has stumbled opponents since college. But this is not a good deal with two mistakes. Just because what Poole did was finer than what Brooks did to Peyton doesn’t mean it wasn’t a big deal. Poole called it a “basketball game.” I assure you that there is no game of basketball that involves grabbing the opponent’s knee and pulling back. Is Morant hurt? Let’s hope not. Poole was trying to hurt Morant? Does not matter. He took the risk with his actions and now, if Memphis really asks the league to consider stopping Poole, he may have to pay for it.
Add Comment