LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 26, 2020

Marcus Morris

Press Conference

Q. I was wondering what compelled you to feel the need to have to defend yourself as far as people thinking that you were trying to intentionally hurt Luka?

MARCUS MORRIS: I'm going to have a broad answer for this. I don't really want to talk about this too much. I just want to have one response, and I just want to leave it at that.

I didn't think it was more of me having to, I just felt as though I should just say something because of how long I've been in this league, the work I've put in to get to the level that I'm at, the people that I feed with being a professional, things like that, that somebody would actually really like try and make a case for me trying to hurt another player intentionally.

Like I said, I stand on respect and morals and hard work. I have my family watching this game, and I approach this game with the utmost respect for every player. I've been in plenty of battles with great players and not once have I ever tried to do anything dirty as far as taking a player out of the game.

To me, in my eyes, we have the best team. I'm grateful to be a part of the Clippers' organization, and I'm grateful to be able to compete against all these guys in the league, and like Luka is a great player for years to come, but to try to disrespect my character, I just felt the need to speak on that.

Like I said, man, I'm a competitor. I love this game, and I play it for certain reasons, but I've never been a guy that tried to take somebody out. I picked him up full court. I've taken the challenge. I've talked to my coaches about taking the challenge. And I honestly didn't even know he had a left ankle injury. I'm worried about my own thing. I have a son coming, I have kids, I have my family.

I just felt like it was too far. I just felt like to try to find a narrative, to try to create a story was too far and I won't take disrespect to my character like that, and I hope he's okay. I actually apologized right when it happened. Mistakes happen, but I'm a man, at the end of the day, with kids and with family watching, and a lot of people have a lot of respect for me, and one thing I'm not is a dirty player and I hang my hat on being a hard worker.

I respect this league and I hope people look at that and know me as who I am, and I would never even go that far of trying to hurt somebody. I just think that's just absurd, and I just think it's just too far.

Q. This morning we've heard from a lot of players from the Raptors and Celtics talking about how they were trying to figure out what to do in terms of whether they want to play in Game 1. Among your locker room, have there been discussions about if there's some sort of team-wide response to making a response to Jacob Blake and another shooting?

MARCUS MORRIS: Honestly, this is the first time we've been together since it happened outside of the game, so we haven't really had the conversation about it, but I'm all for whatever the Celtics and Toronto do. We have to take a stand at some point, and like everybody has been saying, things are bigger than basketball. This is an ongoing issue that we've been dealing with for years and years and years, and if guys don't want to play, I'm right there with them, and I stand for whatever they've got going.

Q. I wondered if you heard much about what Paul George had to say after the game. He was real honest about his mental health struggles and how hard it is in the bubble. What does it do for you when you see a teammate being public like that and you think it inspires people?

MARCUS MORRIS: PG is one of my good friends, and we had a conversation. Being in this bubble is different, man. Guys are going to take it different ways, and I'm totally with him 100 percent. I understand. And being away from your family, just always going back to the room and just being in the room and only watching TV and just having no outlets is tough. PG is very open, and I'm proud of him for standing up for what he feels and what he believes and not afraid to care what anybody thinks about him. Honestly, he's a great player and he's been a great player, so I feel as though it's disrespect because he had three bad games everybody is like going so hard, but it's okay because it was always brighter at the end anyway, and we're going to lack back and we're going to laugh.

But the guy is a great player and he's been proving his substance since he stepped in this league, and for me I don't think he owes anybody anything because he had a couple bad shooting nights. That's why we're deep as a team, that we're still playing well even if he's not shooting the ball well. We were up 20 last game when he didn't play as well, and the other games we won.

At the end of the day, man, he's a pro. He knows what he needs, and like I tell him all the time, we're here for him, and we're going to continue to grow and we're going to continue to grow as a team and get better.