Charles Barkley Weighs In On Recent Physicality In Grizzlies-Warriors Series
The Memphis Grizzlies and Golden State Warriors have been battling hard during their Western Conference Semifinals series and every game has resulted in a lot of physical play.
Recently in Game 3, Grizzlies’ All-Star Ja Morant appeared to suffer some sort of right knee injury after losing his dribble and coming into contact with both Jordan Poole and Andrew Wiggins for the Warriors.
While reaching around Morant to try and steal the ball, Poole appeared to grab Morant’s right knee, leaving him in some discomfort shortly after. Ja Morant then left the game a couple of minutes later and was visibly frustrated on the Grizzlies’ bench.
After the game, Morant did not talk with the media as a result of his injury and he was seen limping out of the arena. Heading into Game 4, he is listed as Doubtful to play with right knee soreness.
The concept of “dirty plays” and “hostile acts” has been brought up all throughout this series on social media and because of what happened to Warriors’ Gary Payton II with his fractured left elbow in Game 2, many have been quick to call Poole’s act on Morant “dirty.”
On Sunday during TNT’s coverage of the NBA Playoffs, NBA Hall-of-Famer Charles Barkley weighed in on the situation between these two teams and gave his opinion on all of the “hard fouls” and physicality in this series.
“Listen, Dillon Brooks, that was a Flagrant 2, but the notion he tried to hurt that kid, I’m not going to live with that,” Barkley said. “Man, give me a break man… Are you watching the basketball games? ‘Let’s see if it is a flagrant, let’s see if it is a flagrant one,’ I’m like yo man, I have been kissed harder than that!”
In Game 1 of this series, Warriors’ Draymond Green was ejected after receiving a Flagrant Foul Penalty 2 for making contact with the head/neck arena of Grizzlies’ big man Brandon Clarke and then subsequently dragging him down by his jersey while he had gone up for a layup.
In Game 2 of this series, as mentioned briefly before, Grizzlies’ Dillon Brooks was ejected after receiving a Flagrant Foul Penalty 2 for making contact with Warriors’ Gary Payton II while he was in the air, not making a play on the ball at all. Payton fell hard on his left side, resulting in him suffering a fractured left elbow.
Now, in Game 3 of this series, we have the situation with Jordan Poole grabbing at Ja Morant’s knee, which has sparked even more talk about “dirty plays” and possible flagrant fouls being called.
The constant stoppage in games by the referees to review every single foul being called has become frustrating for many teams around the league and it seems like Barkley agrees with this notion, as contact and physicality was a part of the game during his career through the 80’s and 90’s.
The Grizzlies and Warriors will play Game 4 of their semifinals series on Monday night, as Golden State leads the series 2-1.
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