I'll bet books will be written about this incident.

Listening to the NPR interview (link posted by "SierraNevada"), and also reading the Everest 2013: The Sherpas Viewpoint from explorersweb (link posted by Bob West), this part provided from the explorersweb article is telling:

Quote:
... The lead fixing Sherpa spoke with one of the 3 climbers at which point physical contact was made, at that point Simone came in verbal contact with a number of the fixing team who had now congregated at one of the anchors to secure themselves from sliding down the face.

Simone began to shout, many of the words in Nepali language, and many of the words were inflammatory. At this point the fixing team made the correct decision to drop their loads of rope and hardware, attaching them to the installed line, and descend without any further interaction or confrontation with the 3 climbers. The fixing team descended to camp 2 and went to their respective camps as a number of expedition teams work together to fix the route on Mt. Everest. As the fixing team descended to camp 2, Simone radioed down requesting to know what the Sherpa were talking about. At one point Simone stated over open radio frequency (fixing frequency-tuned in by all the fixing teams and anyone listening on the mountain) that if the Sherpa had a problem he could come down to Camp 2 soon and "f—ing fight”.

As Simone returned back to Camp 2 he again spoke over the fixing frequency a demand to speak with the fixing team comprised of 16 Sherpa (of 8 different teams) back at camp 2. He explained that he would meet them at one of the expedition camps. When he arrived in Camp 2 he went to his tent. At this point some western guides went to Simone's camp to explain that he should apologize for the situation his team created during a very dangerous workday. As the western guides spoke to Simone, Sherpas from many different teams congregated as a result of his radio call from the Lhotse face and wanted to speak with Simone and get an apology and to explain to him how difficult their job had been that day. ...


If the above quoted text is true, it sounds like Simone Moro went "postal" when the fixing team confronted or tried to stop the "elite team" of climbers (Ueli Steck, Simone Moro, Jonathan Griffith).

There will be many interpretations of what occurred. It appears to me that it grew out of lack of communication between, and assumed expectations by, the various parties.