Former Celtic Marcus Morris is already causing trouble as a New York Knick

This past summer, former Boston Celtic Marcus Morris entered free agency. There, he got into some drama with the San Antonio Spurs, committing to a two-year, $10 million deal to play under head coach Gregg Popovich. However, he ended up pulling out of his commitment and signing a one-year, $15 million deal with the New York Knicks instead.

Marcus Morris signed a one year, $15 million deal with the Knicks this past summer. Photo via Robert Sabo

Now months later, it seems despite the change in uniform Morris is still up to his old ways, maybe even more so. Just a matter of days ago Morris made it clear that his main priority as one of the newest incoming Knicks on the roster was to rebuild their "Old School Knicks" identity and to "Protect the Garden."

Well, it appears he is a man of his word even in the relatively meaningless games that are the preseason. In the Knicks' first exhibition matchup against the Washington Wizards, Morris was ejected for swinging some pretty close elbows and slamming the ball off the head of Washington forward Justin Anderson as he played pretty close defense on the perimeter.

too close pic.twitter.com/VCPbbFBCUu

— #RingerNBA (@ringernba) October 8, 2019

After the game had ended, Morris commented on the event saying that Anderson had said some things that led to the conflict. He also noted that he may have overreacted and had it been a regular-season game he would not have gone to such an extreme, setting a better example for his teammates.

Having watched Morris play in green for the past two seasons, to Celtics' fans this kind of intense and personal play is really nothing new, although I don't think we ever saw it go to this extreme. Starting at power forward, Morris still managed to finish the game tied with rookie RJ Barrett for the leading scorer for the Knicks (17 points each) in their 104-99 win over Washington. Despite only playing a total of 19 minutes and being ejected, Marcus still finished with 17 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 assists. 

At the moment, it is still very possible that Morris could be facing some form of fine or suspension for his actions in the preseason game, but that is all unknown. For now, let's just take a moment to look back on some of Morris' better moments in Boston before he officially starts his new season as a member of the New York Knicks.

 

You can follow Thomas Desmond on Twitter @td_654.