Marcus Morris found himself in hot water after a brawl between the New York Knicks and Memphis Grizzlies at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night. However, Morris wasn’t receiving the criticism for getting ejected after the brawl, but for comments about Jae Crowder that were deemed sexist.
Morris was discussing Crowder’s style of play and said there were “female tendencies” that made him soft. Morris went on to label Crowder’s game as “very woman-like.”
First, here is the brawl in question which began when Elfrid Payton leveling Crowder in garbage time.
Elfrid Payton LEVELS Jae Crowder in garbage time and we got ourselves a brawl in MSG
pic.twitter.com/c9OKC8B4a9
— ClutchPoints NBA (@ClutchPointsNBA) January 30, 2020
Morris was then in front of the media after his ejection to discuss the incident.
“He play the game in a different way. He’s got a lot of female tendencies on the court, flopping and throwing his head back. It’s a man’s game and you just get tired of it,” Morris said. “At the end that was very unprofessional. They’re winning the game, that’s a good team. You know, he does stuff like that. It’s soft. His game is soft. He’s soft. It’s how he carries himself, it’s just very woman-like.”
"He's got a lot of female tendencies on the court, flopping and throwing his head back…he's soft, very woman-like"
– Marcus Morris on Jae Crowder pic.twitter.com/MxtFnKbu3M
— Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) January 30, 2020
After the criticism came flying in, Morris attempted to apologize on Twitter.
“I apologize for using the term ‘female tendencies’ I have the upmost respect for women and everything they mean to us,” he tweeted. “It was a heat of the moment response and I never intended for any women to feel as though in anyway I’m disrespecting them. Again I apologize for my comments.”
I apologize for using the term “female tendencies” I have the upmost respect for women and everything they mean to us. It was a Heat of the moment response and I never intended for any Women to feel as though in anyway I’m disrespecting them. Again I apologize with my comments.
— Marcus Morris (@MookMorris2) January 30, 2020
Morris’ comments come at a time when the NBA is putting a focus on supporting women in basketball and being proud to be a #GirlDad in the wake of the death of Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, which only highlights how ill-conceived they were. Let’s hope that Morris was genuine in his apology and will think twice before tossing out derogatory comments moving forward.