Bickley: Markieff Morris, the Valley’s top sports villain – azcentral.com
Dan Bickley, azcentral sports Markieff Morris is more than just a hot-blooded, ill-tempered basketball player.
He’s the greatest in-house villain in Valley sports history.
The latest outburst from the beleaguered Suns forward occurred during Wednesday’s loss to the Golden State Warriors, when Morris shoved teammate Archie Goodwin during a heated confrontation near the Phoenix bench. It says a lot about the situation on Planet Orange when fans are debating whether Morris also choked a much smaller teammate, or whether it was just a simple assault.
“I just feel sad,” former Suns star Charles Barkley said. “I feel sad for Suns fans because you don’t see any direction. And if you’ve got one guy fighting the younger guy he’s supposed to be leading, well, that’s just a dead end. There is no light at the end of the tunnel.”
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Anarchy is never a good look in the NBA, and Morris is just one of many problems currently facing the league.
The Los Angeles Clippers’ Blake Griffin was suspended four games for punching an equipment manager. The Memphis Grizzlies’ Matt Barnes was suspended two games for an off-court altercation with former New York Knicks coach Derek Fisher. The Knicks’ Cleanthony Early was shot while leaving a strip club in New York. Meanwhile, five head coaches have already been fired before this weekend’s all-star break, reflecting a profession in which athletes don’t have much respect for authority.
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Paul Coro and Jay Dieffenbach discuss the Markieff Morris/Archie Goodwin scuffle and reasons why the Suns haven’t traded Morris. Video: azcentral sports.
It’s also a terrible look for the Suns, a team that has won only two games since Dec. 20. The franchise already fired head coach Jeff Hornacek, but only after setting him up to fail. Morris has been at the center of nearly every storm, sulking after his brother, Marcus, was traded; refusing to train with his teammates over the summer; throwing a towel at Hornacek earlier in the season; playing to his capabilities only after Hornacek had been replaced by interim coach Earl Watson; and failing to control his anger with a teammate he calls his “little guy.”
MORE: Markieff Morris continues to confound the Suns
“Sometimes little brothers and big brothers get into it,” Morris said after Wednesday’s game.
That’s true in many families. Except that never happened when Morris’ real brother was playing for the Suns. It also shows a stunning lack of awareness and self-control for Morris to flare up again at a time when the Suns have become a national punch line, after Barkley skewered the organization during an epic takedown on TNT.
“I feel sadness because of how far this franchise has fallen,” Barkley said. “When I was traded to the Suns, they had a great reputation. They don’t have that anymore.”
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Suns interim head coach Earl Watson talks about the Markieff Morris-Archie Goodwin bench incident.
Apparently, the Suns have again chosen not to discipline Morris for his actions, mostly because of his close personal relationship with Goodwin. Watson said Morris was trying to “motivate” Goodwin and that his “team is not split.”
Problem is, the bond with the fan base has been frayed, if not severed. Much of it stems from the Morris twins.
There was a time when the Valley loathed Diamondbacks reliever Byung-Hyun Kim and later felt the same about starting pitchers Russ Ortiz and Trevor Cahill. Cardinals fans still abhor former offensive tackle Levi Brown, a first-round bust the team selected instead of running back Adrian Peterson. Coyotes fans have every reason to despise Kyle Turris, the third overall draft selection in 2007 who demanded a trade, and Mike Ribeiro, who was a colossal waste of free-agent money. And Morris wasn’t even the first Suns player to throw a towel at his coach, a distinction that belonged to Robert Horry.
MORE: Suns, NBA can’t just move on like Morris wants
Still, no in-town athlete has angered this market like Markieff Morris, who is somehow still around, causing great collateral damage to a once-proud NBA franchise. So how did this happen?
When Watson was chosen to replace Hornacek, he decided to embrace Morris with positive reinforcement, anointing him team leader and the focal point of the entire offense. His statistics spiked, but the incident on Wednesday has stamped the Suns as the most dysfunctional organization in the league. In the NBA, that’s saying something.
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Suns teammates Markieff Morris and Archie Goodwin discuss their altercation during a Suns home loss to the Warriors.
Or maybe Watson and the Suns were trying to build up Morris’ trade value before the Feb. 18 deadline, a strategy that might have been foiled with another show of petulance. The Suns need to trade Morris as soon as possible, and when his production is maximized, his contract is considered a bargain. But who wants a player who can’t control his emotions while playing for an interim coach who handed him everything, including the keys to the bus?
Remember, this is not a rookie. This is a player in Year 5 of his NBA career.
In the end, Watson didn’t empower. He enabled. The more the organization condones and coddles Morris, the more credibility they lose in the community. The team is at risk of alienating a generation of fans that might grow up cheering for LeBron James and Steph Curry instead, and this dumpster-fire season has provided yet another hard lesson for the Suns:
Leadership can’t be given. It must be earned. At this point, the only thing Morris deserves is a ticket out of town.
Reach Bickley at dan.bickley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8253. Follow him on Twitter @danbickley. Listen to “Bickley and Marotta,” weekdays from 12-2 p.m. on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.
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