The Golden State Warriors defeated the Memphis Grizzlies and led 2-1 in a series on Saturday, and this was not 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. On Sunday, the Grizzlies said Morant was suspicious of match 4 on Monday. Memphis was quite adamant after losing in Match 3 that Jordan Poole was to blame for Morant’s 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.
Memphis coach Taylor Jenkins said on Sunday that the game had injured Morant. Look at:
You can see in the screenshot 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 Saturday night. “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 initially said the Grizzlies would consider the league considering Poole’s actions, suggesting that the act may be worthy of removal. However, The Athletic announced on Sunday that the NBA will not take any action against Poole.
Of course, there is no evidence that this interaction actually caused Morant’s injury or even worsened the previous one. Morant was troubled by this knee at various points in the playoffs, and in Game 3 there were other games that could be the culprit.
As expected, none of this stops Jenkins from continuing to claim that Poole’s actions did injure Morant.
Of course, everyone with the Warriors laughed at the idea that what Poole did could be considered a dirty game. Steve Kerr said he had no comment on Poole’s actions because there was “nothing to comment on,” but Kerr had something to say when Marcus Smart, while chasing a loose ball like Poole, dived to the floor and accidentally landed on Curry’s leg. , inadvertently hurting him so that you can judge what hypocrisy is.
Stephen Curry said it was no joke that Morant was hurt, but that there was “no comparison” between what Poole did, what Curry said was “nothing malicious” and what Brooks did to Peyton, adding that the assumption that Poole did something dirty is “complete 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 keep Morant from returning it, and given the low position his hands were already in, he grabbed everything he could, which turned out to be Morant’s knee, to hold him back.
If Poole had grabbed Morant’s shirt and pulled him back, it would have been a foul. But he didn’t grab his T-shirt. He grabbed his knee. Then he pulled. This is dangerous. There are no two ways to do this.
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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.
In the end, all that matters is what Poole did and the potential he had to hurt an opposing player. Knees are not a joke. You can’t grab and pull them. 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 win a lever, or perhaps more often when trying desperately to avoid losing. 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 two mistakes are not made correctly. Just because what Poole did was finer than what Brooks did to Peyton doesn’t mean it wasn’t a big deal. They should not be evaluated in comparison with each other. They were independent actions. The only question is whether what Poole did was unnecessary or excessive.
Poole called it a “basketball game.” I assure you that there is no normal game of basketball that involves grabbing an opponent’s knee and pulling back. I don’t believe it’s intentional. I don’t know if it actually caused the injury or worsened the previous one or none of the above. All I know is that Poole irrevocably grabbed Morant’s knee. He didn’t graze it. He grabbed him and pulled him back. From now on, all this is debatable as to the intent or cause of the injury or where else you want to have the conversation. But if you say that Poole did nothing, intentionally or otherwise, you are dishonest.
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