Markieff Morris on Fighting Archie Goodwin: ‘That’s Nothing’

The Phoenix Suns’ disastrous season reached its nadir Wednesday night, as Markieff Morris and Archie Goodwin briefly fought on the bench during a timeout.

According to Morris, this is simply how he leads younger teammates and toughens them up. Goodwin, for his part, says this incident won’t negatively impact their friendship.

Back to basketball: Phoenix dropped their ninth in a row 112-104 to the visiting Golden State Warriors.

Per the AZ Republic:

“That’s nothing,” Morris said. “That’s part of being a leader, being a big brother. Sometimes, little brothers and big brothers get into it. That’s what happened. Wrong place, wrong time. […] That’s my little brother. I’ve been here with him for three years. I know him really well. I know his family. We’re really close. It happens sometimes … Big brothers shake little brothers up some times. It don’t look good but nothing I do is going to look good.”

 

Goodwin wound up being the Suns’ leading scorer with 20 points in 28 minutes. Morris finished with 19 points and eight rebounds and was starting to break away from last year’s issues, including behavioral ones with a trade request and being suspended for two games for tossing a towel at former coach Jeff Hornacek. He had begun to separate himself some from the performance struggles and trade rumors with interim head coach Earl Watson putting him back in the starting lineup.

 

(Suns interim head coach Earl) Watson benched Goodwin and left Morris in the game. Goodwin did not return until the start of the second quarter when Morris was out of the game. The two played together later in the first half. They also gave each other a fist pound before they started the second half. […] “I go to his house all the time,” Goodwin said. “He comes to my house. We’re great friends. He’s like a brother to me. It’s just one of those situations. Family fight but that doesn’t mean I don’t love him any more or any less.”