Markieff Morris wanted to clear the air.
A day after his first NBA team, the Phoenix Suns, eliminated his current team, the defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers, in Thursday's Game 6, Morris took an opportunity during his exit Zoom media interview Friday to apologize to Suns team owner Robert Sarver for what he calls a "misunderstanding" over Chris Paul's shoulder injury.
"Robert Sarver had a couple of words last game," said Morris about Game 5 in Phoenix when Paul hurt his shoulder again on a box out by Wesley Matthews in the second half.
"I think he thought something happened that didn't when CP got hurt and I kind of said some stuff to him. I don't know if he heard about it, but I apologize to him for that because it was a misunderstanding and you know, I'm older now and I shouldn't have replied the way I did and I just want him to know that."
The play was reviewed to see if it warranted a flagrant foul, but was ruled as a common foul as Paul grabbed at his shoulder in pain and vented at Matthews.
Paul later looked at the replay and said it wasn't a dirty play.
"I told Wes it was a clean play," Paul said after Game 5.
That was a major storyline in Game 5 that ended with Phoenix drumming the Lakers by 30 points to take a 3-2 series lead. The Suns then went to Los Angeles and put away the Lakers, 113-100, in Game 6 to win their first playoff series since 2010, which is when they last made the playoffs.
"You've got to tip your hats to the Suns," Morris said.
Morris, 31, said he wanted to beat Phoenix because that's where's his career began in 2011 as the 13th overall pick out of Kansas. He played four full seasons there before his trade request was met during his fifth season in 2015-16 as the Suns dealt him to Washington.
The trade request came after his brother, Marcus, was shipped to Detroit in the summer of 2015. Markieff Morris had in-game confrontations that 2015-16 season as he threw a towel at then head coach Jeff Hornacek that led to a two-game suspension, and later shoved teammate Archie Goodwin.
All that occurred during Devin Booker's rookie season in Phoenix.
Five seasons later, Morris witnessed Booker score a career playoff-high 47 points with 22 coming in the first quarter of Thursday's closeout win.
"Devin Booker, he's a superstar," Markieff Morris said. "He's next up in this league and he carried that team. CP played well. The entire team played well."
The second-seeded Suns will open their conference semifinals series Monday against the third-seeded Denver Nuggets at Phoenix Suns Arena.
Have opinion about current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on Twitter at @DuaneRankin.
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2021-06-05 20:45:13Z
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