On Sunday, prior to their teams clashing in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series, the Clippers' Montrezl Harrell apologized to the Mavericks' Luka Doncic for some shit-talk caught on camera in Friday's Game 3. For the uninitiated, the comments that led to this exchange was Harrell calling Doncic a "bitch ass white boy." For you amateur lip readers out there consider this another opportunity to get some practice in:
Since cameras giveth in addition to taking away, the clip of said apology was also caught and put out on ESPN's Twitter feed. So far 1.3 million people and counting have seen it:
Upon seeing that video, Harrell added additional context to what went down by tweeting that he decided to approach Doncic on his own in order to clear the air "from all the outside nonsense that was being said." Harrell added that he has "nothing but respect" for the Mavs' young star, and that Doncic indicated it didn't bother him and he understood the comments as being something said in the heat of the moment.
Not sure why I just wrote all that when you can just read it from him right here:
Doncic was asked about the exchange after the game, and he made it clear that there will be no lingering problems stemming from this. Note that Harrell also tweeted a response to that:
In reporting on the incident earlier on Sunday, Sports Illustrated wrote that Clippers coach Doc Rivers addressed the event with Harrell.
“You just have to be careful,” Rivers said. “They both were talking. I don’t think Luka was saying anything racial, but he was swearing. So they both were doing it. It’s an emotional game. It’s a playground game out there in the playoffs. I said to him, ‘Hey, I don’t think you meant anything racially by it.’ He said 'white boy,' but I don’t think there was anything racial intended. But we are in a very heightened climate and you have to be careful. Trez was the first one to say that. He said, ‘I didn’t mean that racially.’ And I said it doesn’t matter. It’s what’s perceived … make sure you do the right thing.”
Rivers also indicated in those comments that Harrell had reached out to apologize to Doncic and that Doncic wasn't even expecting an apology.
“They squashed it,” Rivers said. “Luka, I guess, was shocked that he needed to reach out.”
Sounds settled. Oh, and also there was an actual game played where Doncic had a triple-double and capped a 21-point comeback by hitting a three-pointer at the buzzer in overtime.
