It’s been a rough series for Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins, who continues to make weird, halfhearted accusations.
He accused Jordan Poole of “yanking” Ja Morant’s knee and injuring him, which doesn’t seem to be when Morant suffered a bone bruise, and also said there was “a lot of contact” on a Draymond Green block that referees deemed clean in their two-minute report.
After Game 3, when he made that accusation against Poole, ESPN’s Marc J. Spears followed up to ask Jenkins to clarify his stance.
Spears joined KNBR on Tuesday to discuss the situation, saying that Jenkins’ accusation was fairly serious. The way Jenkins waffled on the accusation didn’t sit right with him.
“For me, the term yanked is a really, really big statement to make and I’ve been covering the NBA for a long time, since ’99 and I probably could count on one hand how many times a coach went at a player like that,” Spears told Papa & Lund. “But the thing is if you’re gonna say that, jump up in the pool, like, be all in, put your chest out and say it with strength.
“So, when he said it, I was like, ‘Okay, is he serious to insinuate that?’
“And that’s why I wanted to get some clarity because if you’re gonna be strong enough to make an accusation, you got to be all in on it if you’re gonna do that. And I think that’s probably where he made the mistake is like, if you’re gonna say something, say it with your chest, and that’s why I pushed him on it.”
Listen to the full interview below. You can listen to every KNBR interview on our podcast page at knbr.com/podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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