The past weekend was full of news for the NBA, including one nobody wanted to see. Ja Morant once again made headlines for bad reasons.
A couple of months after his first suspension, Morant was seen flashing a gun on Instagram Live again, which raised many eyebrows around the league. Everybody has had something to say about it. While the entire NBA world condemned this situation, JJ Redick recently came in Morant’s defense, going off on live TV.
“Again, we can go back to the bad story of the incident of the teenager. Ja claimed self-defense, the teenager threw the ball to his face. We can go to the incident at the mall where he yelled at a security guard… As far as we know, all of these incidents have been investigated and no law has been broken. I’m not condoning the behavior, I’m not saying there should be no punishment, there should be. You are the face of the league, you are representing the NBA, you are a role model to young kids, all of that. I don’t think half the season is the right answer.”
Then Redick went off on politicians encouraging people to buy more guns while getting mass shootings constantly. He talked about two of them specifically, comparing them to Ja and asking why the player is held in higher regard than the ones in charge of taking care of the citizens.
“And the last point I wanna make. If you bring this up, the gun on social media, you talk about consequences. In our country right now, gun culture is pervasive. We have mass shooting after mass shooting, and nobody’s doing a damn thing about it. So I get why we’re so sensitive to this right now. But there’s no consequence for Greg Abbott [governor of Texas], telling his constituents to go buy more guns. And then we have mass shooting after mass shooting in Texas. There are no consequences for elected Tenessee official to send out a Christmas card holding AR-15s with his young family. And then there’s a shooting in his very district. There’s no consequences to that. So why are we trying to lay down the hammer on a 23-year-old who didn’t break a law? Explain that to me.”
JJ Redick got heated on First Take this morning
“WHY ARE WE TRYING TO LAY DOWN THE HAMMER ON A 23-YEAR-OLD WHO DIDN’T BREAK A LAW? EXPLAIN THAT TO ME !”
(h/t @awfulannouncing )
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) May 17, 2023
He was really livid while making his point, and truth be told, he might have a point. Still, the situation with Ja is, as Redick himself said, that he represents one of the biggest brands in the world.
The NBA has a larger reach than most people and organizations around the world, and seeing one of their faces engage in this type of behavior is just bad for the league.
Ja Morant Took Accountability For His Latest Incident
Morant took the blame for this situation, admitting that his words don’t mean anything right now, but vowing again to do better and show a different face of himself. The Memphis Grizzlies star has been involved in controversy in the past two months, and things only got worse over the weekend.
The team announced they suspended Morant for all their activities, and now the league will have the last word on how many games Ja will get to start the 2023-24 NBA season.
We sincerely appreciate and respect you as a reader of our site. It would help us a lot if you follow us on Google News because of the latest update.
Thanks for following us. We really appreciate your support.
