Tee Morant, father of Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant, was ejected from the arena during the final minutes of Saturday's NBA game at the FedExForum against Oklahoma City for allegedly making "overtly disrespectful statements about the integrity of the officiating crew".
It happened with 2:10 remaining in the fourth quarter as the Thunder led 122-107. Play was stopped as Josh Tiven, the crew chief for the game officials, summoned arena security team members to remove Tee Morant, who was sitting in the front row of courtside seats. Morant was notified of his ejection and escorted from the arena by the security team. Morant laughed and shook the hand of one of the security members, as he seemed to understand that he was just doing his job.
We do not have video of Morant making the comments, which allegedly included repeated statements such as "The fix is in!" according to ESPN's Tim McMahon. However, we do have video of Morant being kicked out of the game.
We have seen ejections for criticizing officials before, most recently with T-Wolves coach Chris Finch a little over a week ago. However, we have not seen a fan ejection related to verbally attacking officials. Apparently you can disagree with calls but you cannot say that they are fixing the outcomes. According to Tiven, it would seem that Tee Morant stepped over the line. We will have to take his word for it since we have no footage to work with.
As for Ja Morant, he finished with 16 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds and 2 blocks, but the Thunder were just too strong as they beat the Grizzlies 125-112.
[ESPN]
Moonlighting as a blogger to pursue my interest and enjoyment of sports. Former high school and Division I athlete (now a "retired" family man) that loves watching and discussing all sports. Follow me on Twitter (@HoldoutSports) and like Holdout Sports on Facebook.
