Ja Morant will be serving a 25-game suspension to start the 2023-24 NBA season. The Memphis Grizzlies superstar was punished in light of his second gun-flashing incident on Instagram Live.
Veteran point guard Chris Paul recently made an appearance on Uninterrupted’s The Shop. During the episode, CP3 shared his thoughts on Morant and his controversies. Paul began by speaking about how he knew Ja even before he was drafted into the NBA.
“It’s so crazy, because I’m a big Ja fan,” Paul said. “Ja came to my basketball camp when he was in college. He came in the camp, nobody really knew who he was like that. And after camp, everybody knew who he was. That’s when he blew up, and all the NBA scouts.”
Paul added: “What I’ll say about Ja, just me being in the league and my position as president of the union for so long, is that everything that you guys said is so real. But it happens so fast.”
(Starts at 11:25)
Chris Paul served as the president of the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) from 2013 to 2021. Evidently, CP3 cares a lot about the well-being of players in the league.
But at the end of the day, Morant deserved severe punishment as it was his second gun-related offense in a matter of just two months.
NBPA Released Statement About Ja Morant’s 25-Game Suspension
Considering the new rules, Ja Morant will be automatically ineligible to win any of the NBA’s postseason awards. After all, he will be playing less than 65 games next season.
Apart from that, Morant will lose 25 games worth of salary due to his suspension, among other losses. Keeping that in mind, the NBPA believes the league was too harsh with Ja’s punishment.
“Ja has expressed his remorse and accepted responsibility for his actions, and we support him unequivocally as he does whatever is necessary to represent himself, our players and our league in the best possible light.
“As to the discipline imposed, which keeps him off the court until December and requires some unstated conditions to be met before he can return, we believe it’s excessive and inappropriate for a number of reasons, including the facts involved in the particular incident and that it is not fair and consistent with past discipline in our league. We will explore with Ja all options and necessary steps.”
While the NBPA will try to get a reduced suspension for Morant, there is little to no hope that the league will go back on its original decision. Morant’s suspension is most likely a message for the rest of the players in the NBA.
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