We’re in the waning days of the NBA regular season but there’s still plenty that needs to be determined. While the Western Conference continues to be a glorious mess, the eight teams in the Eastern Conference are set. Outside of the top-2 squads in the East, though, there’s a lot of uncertainty about which teams will play in the first round.
The Boston Celtics, for example, are locked into the second seed. Their matchup with a team at the bottom of the conference, though, still needs to be determined with a few games to play.
Celtics forward Marcus Morris does know who he doesn’t want to play: his brother. That means he’s hoping the Washington Wizards, feature Markieff Morris, end up anywhere but the seventh seed in the East.
Morris spoke to ESPN on Saturday and explained exactly why he doesn’t want to play his twin brother’s team.
“Man, every day we talk about it. Honestly, I don’t want to play them first. Can’t lie,” Morris said after Boston’s off-day workout Saturday. “I don’t want to play them first because it’s my brother and we’re going to war. When I go out there — I’ve been telling [my teammates] this is war time. It’s like fighting for your life out here, and I’d hate to see my brother in the first round, to have to be that bully to my brother when I know it’s gonna be like.”
It’s fitting, in a way, that Friday night was an evening where both Marcus and Markieff were ejected from play. But war metaphors aside, the Morrises seem serious about not wanting part of each other’s teams to start the playoffs. It’s certainly set up a very strange family dynamic as the season comes to a close.
“I’m like, ’Kieff, c’mon, man. Like s—. Get to the six or the eight [seed]. I ain’t trying to play y’all in the first round,’” said Morris. “He’s like, ‘I know. I know.’ … because it said they was like 40 percent to play in the seventh [seed], but then they lost, so I was like, should I be happy that they lost?
Rooting for your brother to lose games in the regular season is odd, sure, but it’s nowhere near as odd as playing against him and hoping he loses in the playoffs.
(Via ESPN)
