Marcus Morris turned some heads Thursday night when video surfaced of him shoving Boston Celtics teammate Jaylen Brown during a timeout in a loss to the Miami Heat.
But one pretty notable member of the organization isn’t too perturbed by it.
In interviews with The Boston Globe and The Boston Herald, Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge downplayed the situation quite a bit.
Ainge indicated to The Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach that it was just two competitors getting caught up in the heat of the moment.
“It’s two good kids that are competitive,” Ainge told Himmelsbach. “They both want the same thing. Emotions happen in games, and I’m not worried about it.”
Ainge added: “I have not talked with them about it and haven’t really heard anything from anyone about it. So I don’t really feel a need to intervene.”
Then to The Herald’s Steve Bulpett, Ainge compared Brown and Morris to a pair of former Celtics.
“I honestly didn’t think anything of it,” Ainge said. “I like Marcus’ and Jaylen’s character and personalities and feistiness, and, like, I just think nothing of something like this.
“It’s something where those things happen to best friends even. Heck, I remember those things happening to (Rajon) Rondo and Perk (Kendrick Perkins). You know, they’re best buddies, but it’s just the heat of the battle, and I didn’t have a second thought about it.”
While it’s understandable Ainge would publicly soften the situation, the reality is the optics of a one player shoving a teammate isn’t great. But if Ainge doesn’t feel the need to intervene, then it probably isn’t a dire situation.
