A high school basketball player called Jamirah Shutes has been charged with assault after her recent actions at the end of a basketball game. This is quite troubling since it indicates that her professional career as a basketball player is over before it even began. After all, hitting a rival team’s opponent once the game is over is something that should not be taken very lightly.
With that being said, fans should certainly want to know more about Jamirah Shutes and why she decided to engage in this act of senseless violence. Additionally, some might also want to know who she struck and the context of her unexpected behavior. Therefore, we should take a closer look and find out.
Why did Jamirah Shutes sucker punch Elissa Brett?
To those who do not know, Shutes is a 5th-year player for the Memphis Tigers, a women’s basketball team that represents the University of Texas. She is listed as 5’9 and is the daughter of James and Patricia Shutes. Jamirah is quite a good basketball player and was ranked 13th in the institution’s all-time leading scorers list heading into this incident.
The incident in question occurred after a game between the Memphis Tigers and another team called the Bowling Green State University team (BGSU). Although It was a close match, it ended with BGSU winning with a final score of 73-60. After the game got over, both sides walked past each other and engaged in the customary handshaking at the end of the game.

Jamirah clearly didn’t have peace-making on her mind and was presumably angry over the game’s results. Therefore, she stopped and got into a verbal exchange with Elisa Brett, a player from the opposing team. It is unclear what was said between them. But it was enough for Shutes to get angry enough to throw a punch at Elisa, who never saw it coming.
The sucker punch instantly connected and Brett went down while holding her face in pain. To the surprise of many fans, none of Brett’s teammates lost their cool. However, since this incident happened right in front of the game officials, there were consequences that were heading Jamirah’s way.
Ugly ending to the night after Bowling Green’s Elissa Brett was hit by a Memphis player in the handshake line after the game. pic.twitter.com/9QLFdguB9f
— Kurt Steiss ⚔️ (@kurtsteiss) March 24, 2023
Now, we have found out that a criminal case for assault has been filed against her and the police have gotten involved. After all, this was not an in-game scuffle and Brett didn’t appear to do anything which warranted an act of physical violence against her. Hopefully, this sets an example and serves as a reminder to other players in the future.
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