Jerry West addressed the Grizzlies during a Wednesday morning shootaround, where he was rumored to have been in a heatex exchange with Mike Fratello.
"I want to assure you that there was no heated exchange. Period. Absolutely none," West said. "Whoever said I was in (Fratello's) face and he was in mine is a total lie. ... I have never seen something get so overblown. It's not fair to Mike.
"This was more of an appeal in my mind to get them to play harder. When we play harder, we're competitive. We're not competing hard enough. This other stuff is total BS."