Ian Begley, SNY.tv | Twitter |

There's some fallout between the Knicks and the Spurs over Marcus Morris' decision to renege on his agreement with San Antonio and sign with New York.

The Athletic published a story quoting a GM who said the Spurs were "pissed" about Morris backing out of his verbal agreement with San Antonio to sign with the Knicks.

It's understandable that the Spurs would be upset with Morris' decision to back out of the deal. It's also understandable if the Spurs were upset with the Knicks for giving Morris an alternative option.

San Antonio traded forward Davis Bertans to Washington and re-worked an agreement with DeMarre Carroll to sign Morris to a two-year, $20 million deal.

The Knicks didn't have the cap space to sign Morris - an idea New York communicated to Morris' camp early in free agency - until a medical issue arose with free agent signee Reggie Bullock.

Due to the medical issue, the Knicks and Bullock reworked their original two-year, $21 million deal. That gave New York the cap space to sign Morris to a one-year $15 million deal.

And if the Spurs are mad at the Knicks over the situation, some with the Knicks don't see San Antonio as a totally innocent party in crossing lines when it comes to NBA ethics.

Per SNY sources, there are people in the Knicks organization who feel some with the Spurs operated outside of accepted NBA norms at times when Kristaps Porzingis was a Knick.

The Knicks talked to teams about trading Porzingis prior to the 2017 NBA Draft and eventually traded the face of their franchise to Dallas last February. Some with the Knicks felt San Antonio crossed lines of accepted behavior prior to the Porzingis trade.

It's unclear what, exactly, the Knicks feel the Spurs did with regards to Porzingis. But it seems like both teams feel lines were crossed in different situations.

Also, there is a theory that Marcus Morris' ex-agent, Rich Paul, steered him away from the Spurs to sign with the Knicks. That isn't accurate. Morris made the decision independent of Paul, who, SNY sources confirm, preferred Morris to remain in San Antonio. The New York Post first reported that Paul hoped Morris would remain with the Spurs.

The New York Daily News reported that Morris also turned down a three-year, $41 million offer from the Los Angeles Clippers. There were suggestions that Paul, who is also the agent for Lakers star LeBron James, advised Morris to turn down the Clippers' offer. Both Marcus Morris and Markief Morris refuted that theory in tweets from their verified Twitter accounts. A league source familiar with the matter told SNY that Morris made the decision to turn down the Clippers offer on his own, without influence from Paul.

Paul and Marcus Morris mutually agreed to part ways during free agency. (Players and agents agree to part ways all of the time, by the way.)

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