Morgan Freeman somehow managed to anger a group of college basketball fans with his hilarious hijinks on Saturday evening. The 86-year-old legend acted inappropriately while sitting courtside in Oxford, Mississippi and his actions drew criticism from people who take things way too seriously.
Freeman, who was born in Memphis, moved around a lot as a child but spent a large portion of his youth in the Magnolia State. Not only did he live there growing up, he continues to live there today.
His 124-acre ranch, worth about $10 million, is located just outside of Clarksdale. Freeman owns a famous Mississippi juke joint called Ground Zero Blues Club in the adjacent city.
All of this goes to say that Freeman has deep-rooted ties to The ‘Sip. He’s also a huge Ole Miss basketball fan and often sits courtside for big games!
The Rebels hosted the No. 16-ranked Auburn Tigers at the Pavillion on Saturday. Freeman was there.
Johni Broome scored 15 points with nine rebounds and seven assists in a win over the home team, and got to share an unforgettable moment with one of the greatest actors of all-time. The latter tugged on the former’s jersey after holding up his hand to prevent the Tigers’ leading scorer from falling into him.
Broome swiftly slapped Freeman’s hand away before realizing who it was that was pestering him!
Freeman’s actions did not go over well with a certain group of fans on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Johni Broome’s instincts here are totally correct. No matter how famous, no fan should grab a player’s uniform during the play” — Noah Bieniek
“Why was he grabbing him anyway?” — @CBBContent
“If this was anyone other than a celebrity, that fan would have been kicked out.” — Adrian Rusch
“So as a player, you become offended if it’s a fan, but you go back and apologize if it happens to be a famous person? Okay.” — @BallCoach15
“You may be Morgan Freeman but you still don’t go grabbing player’s jerseys like that and not expect a reaction.” — @LCTurner
“Oh – that makes it OK?” — @merrellsc
“So it’s okay to do it, just have to be famous.” — @MpPx111
“Pedestal. Privilege.” — @jrushing21
“Freeman has done that before. He shouldn’t be allowed to sit courtside if he can’t keep his hands to himself. Anyone else would be escorted out & banned. @SEC” — @419Julie
“Bro Morgan needs to be ejected” — @byrceyoung
“Morgan Freeman or not, you don’t grab anyone.” — @jabba2711
“Why did Morgan grab his jersey that way in the first place ? I would’ve smacked his hand away too…No matter who it was” — @rodr60654
“he did actually grab a handful of his jersey which is a bit weird. If that wasn’t Morgan Freeman, people would be asking what the hell they were doing touching a player.” — @ChrisBishopL1C4
“We have to stop giving rich/famous people outs for doing weird things, right? Normal citizen, they would get escorted out… but it’s Morgan Freeman, and the kid needs to apologize??” — @zachroddenberry
“Lmao… no one should be grabbing him, don’t care who it is.” — @mrwells24
“Random fan gets kick out for telling Lebron he looks fat.. this is getting ridiculous” — @tuttler14
“But Morgan should have been thrown out of the arena. Tbh.” — @trijws
That is just a small sample of the outrage. Quite a few people were furious with Freeman!
Fortunately, there were just as many folks who saw the humor in the exchange and did not take it too seriously. Although those who are triggered are correct that this behavior would not be acceptable from practically anyone else… it’s Morgan Freeman.
Do you really think that he should have been ejected from the game? Do you really think that Broome wishes the exchange didn’t happen?
Or, maybe, there are different standards for different people… Broome will never forget when Freeman tugged on his jersey. It’s not the same as some random booster. Lighten up!