Celts’ Morris moves on
Court case concluded, he’s ready to play
Before Marcus Morris, along with his twin brother Markieff, was even acquitted of felony assault charges in Phoenix late Tuesday night, the Celtics forward already was going through a daily regimen with his new team.
The Celtics had dispatched basketball operations assistants Jake Eastman and Alex Barlow to Phoenix to work with Morris, who is expected to be on hand for today’s practice in Waltham.
And according to Danny Ainge, Morris shouldn’t need much time fitting in, with the Celts about to play their second exhibition game tomorrow night in Philadelphia.
“That won’t be a problem,” the president of basketball operations said. “There’s not much of a challenge for a veteran player in this situation. It’s good news. He’ll be in town (tomorrow), and we can start getting him acclimated. We had a couple of coaches out there with him, so we were trying to bring as much of training camp to him as possible.”
Though there has been speculation the Morris brothers could still be subject to the league’s mandatory 10-game suspension in the case of a violent felony, under terms of the collective bargaining agreement, the suspension can only be triggered by a conviction.
In the meantime, the brothers, both members of the Phoenix Suns at the time of the 2015 incident, appear to have stepped out from under a long, 18-month cloud since the night a former family friend named Erik Hood was beaten outside the gym where the Morrises were attending an AAU basketball game. Hood charged that both men, in addition to three others, administered the beating. Julius Kane and Christopher Melendez, the former an old Philadelphia friend of the Morrises as well as of Hood, eventually pled guilty to charges.
But Hood’s attempt to implicate the Morris brothers was dismissed by defense attorneys as an attempt to get rich at the expense of two wealthy athletes. Hood’s testimony — he has a pending civil case — appeared to be undone by a series of texts sent from the scene by Sherika Sherod, who later drove Hood to the hospital.
The texts, made public during Sherod’s testimony on behalf of the prosecution, speculated on the financial gain she and Hood were about to make from a lawsuit.
Though Sherod testified that both brothers were present during the assault — Marcus as a participant and Markieff as a lookout — two AAU coaches who also witnessed the incident testified they didn’t see either brother.
The jury received the case at noon Monday. After deliberating six assault charges, the members came back with their findings Tuesday night.
“I’m going to Boston, gonna get back with the team,” Marcus Morris told reporters on his way out of court.
Markieff Morris, who is recovering from sports hernia surgery, plays for the Washington Wizards.
This new chapter of Marcus’ career will add an interesting element to the bad blood in the CelticsWizards rivalry. The brothers face each other for the first time this season on Christmas.
In the short term, Ainge is confident Morris’ conditioning is far enough along to pick up the pace starting in today’s practice. Morris’ work with Eastman and Barlow, the latter the team’s assistant video coordinator last season, included extensive video work.
“He’s fine,” said Ainge, who talked with Morris Tuesday night. “It’s not as if he hasn’t been working out on his own. He’s very excited to come to Boston, and he’s anxious to get on with the season.”