Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant found himself mired in controversy this week.
Morant, 23, is widely regarded as one of the faces of the NBA. Unfortunately, despite immense success both on the court and financially via sponsorships, he continues to make one boneheaded decision after another.
Heading into this week, Morant had already been linked to a summertime situation where a 17-year-old boy accused him of essentially threatening him with a gun in his waistband following a disagreement.
Then this weekend Morant seemed to show off a gun at a club early Saturday morning.
Following the clip going viral Morant deleted all his social media pages and announced he was taking some time off to do better.
“I’m sorry to my family, teammates, coaches, fans, partners, the city of Memphis and the entire organization for letting you down,” he said in a statement.
“I’m going to take some time away to get help and work on learning better methods of dealing with stress and my overall well-being.”
As it turns out, Morant’s most recent gun incident may have far-reaching implications. If the gun display occurred in Denver as it initially appears that it did, then the All-Star seemingly would have had to bring his gun on the Grizzlies’ team plane.
One eagle-eyed fan on Reddit correctly highlighted that this could carry a suspension of 50+ games per the terms of the CBA.
That would have a devastating impact on all parties involved.
Shortly after Morant took his self-imposed social media exile, NBA vet DeMarcus Cousins came out with a pointed message regarding the young Grizzlies star.
It certainly doesn’t seem like Morant is evoking much in the way of sympathy from his peers.
Brittany isn’t letting family drama slow down her partying. https://t.co/J9GPdxw4fz
— Game 7 (@game7__) March 5, 2023
How he ultimately responds to this incident will be telling.
Either Morant will learn from his mistakes and pledge to do better next time, or history will keep repeating itself.
Will Morant keep going down the troubled path he has clearly been on? Or will he bounce back strong? One way or another, an answer should emerge soon enough.
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A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
