Shannon Sharpe fights NBA star Steven Adams and Ja Morant's father verbally during Lakers vs. Grizzlies (VIDEO)

Shannon Sharpe got into a verbal altercation with Steven Adams and Ja Morant's dad as the Memphis Grizzlies came to town to take on the Los Angeles Lakers.

Shannon Sharpe, the former NFL Hall-of-Fame tight end turned sports commentator, was seen sparring with Tee Morant, with Adams continuing to shout at him as well.

Ultimately, security intervened to separate Sharpe and Morant and the spat did not escalate to anything uglier.

With NFL playoff games coming thick and fast, basketball was the last thing one expected Shannon Sharpe to get agitated by this weekend. But over the course of the years on his show with Skip Bayless, he has shown himself to be opinionated about the game and he certainly has some strong ones here.

Thankfully, a physical altercation was avoided and nothing untoward came beyond verbal jockeying.

Mirjam Swanson

@MirjamSwanson

Tempers flare in the front row here at the Crypt — where Shannon Sharpe, Steven Adams and Papa Tee Morant exchange words and have to be kept apart before heading off in opposite directions.

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Tempers flare in the front row here at the Crypt — where Shannon Sharpe, Steven Adams and Papa Tee Morant exchange words and have to be kept apart before heading off in opposite directions. https://t.co/EtMiSDY3sv

Why was Shannon Sharpe so agitated against Ja Morant's father?

While the above was quite the spectacle, it was immediately unclear what had happened. However, during halftime, Shannon Sharpe was in the tunnel with security before returning for the third quarter. According to him, the beef started with Dillon Brooks. He said he wasn't big enough to guard LeBron James.

To which the Grizzlies player replied by telling Sharpe to go away using an expletive, and Shannon replied likewise. When the player started to approach him, he allegedly told him that Brooks would not want these problems before Ja Morant came and intervened.

This snowballed further to where Ja Morant's father got involved on behalf of his son and other players like Steven Adams were also seen getting mouthy.

Dave McMenamin

@mcten

Shannon Sharpe spent halftime in the tunnel with security before returning to his seat for the third quarter. He granted ESPN a brief interview explaining what happened with the Grizzlies on his way to his seat:

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Shannon Sharpe spent halftime in the tunnel with security before returning to his seat for the third quarter. He granted ESPN a brief interview explaining what happened with the Grizzlies on his way to his seat: https://t.co/XZNw6sQhEG

Grizzlies players who were playing the game at the time of the incident, of course, were not available for comment. The above version of the altercation only comes from Shannon Sharpe's side, so there could be other issues at hand that might come to the fore later.

But from this, it seems perfectly clear that the former NFL player was the one who instigated the verbal back-and-forth, even though his tongue-in-cheek remark may have been replied back with a bit more heat by the player than necessary.

Thankfully, whatever happened was nipped in the bud before it escalated into any physical fight, which would have overshadowed the game itself. We expect to hear more from this in the coming days and it remains to be seen if this beef is one-and-done or if it still has more time to cook.

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