Chris Morris' turbulent stay in Utah just took another lurch.
Early in the fourth quarter of Tuesday's Jazz victory over the New York Knicks, Morris was yanked from the game by coach Jerry Sloan. In a three-minute stretch of that period, Morris had given up seven points to Knicks rookie John Wallace.Once Morris took a seat on the bench, Sloan got in his face. Morris presumably said something back to Sloan - "presumably" because no one was talking about it - and Sloan ordered him to the locker room.
"Get out. Get out of here," Sloan screamed several times, gesturing to the locker room.
Morris didn't budge, however, until Sloan instructed a couple of Delta Center security guards seated nearby to accompany Morris.
"Get him out of here," Sloan shouted.
Morris left, and was gone by the time the game was over and the team reached the locker room.
Afterward, Sloan declined to discuss his problems with Morris.
"I'm not making any comment on Chris Morris," he said. "I haven't seen Chris. We'll talk about that later."
Morris' teammates were equally discreet.
"I'm not going to comment on that," Karl Malone said. "I was out on the court playing. I don't even know what went on, and I'd rather not speculate. I'm sure he and coach Sloan will work it out."
Morris, who joined the team prior to last season as a free agent, has had problems with Sloan in the past.
He was suspended without pay for a game on Jan. 25 in Houston for an unspecified violation of team rules, believed to be a missed workout. He's also been held out of games a couple of times for other infractions, once for failing to ride the exercise bike after playing less than 20 minutes in a game, another time for showing up late for a game-day shootaround.
Morris played a total of eight minutes in the first three games after his suspension last month, but lately Sloan has given him more playing tme. In the last six games (prior to Tuesday) he'd averaged 18 minutes, playing both big guard and small forward.