It’s probably Deja vu again for the NBA after one of its young stars was involved in a gun controversy in recent days. Ja Morant, undoubtedly the face of the young and upcoming Memphis Grizzlies, had its fair share of controversies the past few weeks, highlighted with his gun wielding antics in a strip club in Denver.
The association had dealt a problem like this before with Gilbert Arenas. Like Morant, Arenas was a superstar in his prime, making multiple all-star teams and was the franchise player for the Washington Wizards in the mid-2000s. After bringing a gun to the locker room to confront teammate Javaris Crittenton in December 2009 after a dispute on the team plane, former NBA Commissioner, the late David Stern, immediately suspended both players for the rest of the 2009-2010 season. Crittenton also brought a gun to confront Arenas and as a fringe NBA player, he never had an opportunity to play in the league again.
While Morant’s case may be different from Arenas and Crittenton, the NBA had its hand full because Ja Morant is a young superstar and is expected to be one of the faces of the league within the next decade. What’s even more baffling about the situation is that Morant was raised in a good environment with his father, Tee Morant, always in his ear from day one.
He went on to have a strict routine with his father while training basketball in their own backyard before he went on to star for the Murray State Racers as a little known two-star recruit from Crestwoood High School in Sumter, South Carolina. While raising a daughter and becoming the face of a franchise should be instant motivators to get your act cleaned up, it’s like he went to the opposite direction as his star continues to shine.
The real problem with Ja Morant is having a large entourage of friends that constantly drives him into the wrong direction. Look, we don’t personally know his friends or Morant, but we can’t deny the history of players that had too many mouths to feed while keeping the wrong company throughout their respective careers. The easy solution to avoid all of this is to keep a small circle of friends and hire people to help his career progress, not regress.
Ja Morant is currently away from the team right now but by the looks of it, he is going to get away from this without much damage to his career due to his superstar status and with him being relatively young. Even Nike is giving Morant the support he needed, and rightfully so. The ball is now on Morant’s hands. He needs to act on this with a new attitude and forgoing all the antics that got him into trouble. If he can’t let go of all the bad company he’s currently in, then the fans are going to be robbed of a talented, high flying superstar for years to come.
