Ja Morant is clearly going to be punished. There is no way that he can be allowed on the court for the Memphis Grizzlies’ season opener after so quickly proving that he didn’t understand the severity of playing with guns on social media. Adam Silver confirmed Thursday that Morant will be away from basketball activities for a period of time, but he also realizes that there has to be more to the medicine he is forcing Morant to take than it simply being as bitter as possible.
Silver talked at length during a Dan Patrick Show appearance on Thursday about Morant. He addressed the Claudia Jordan report that Morant’s camp is claiming that the gun in the second video was a toy. He is taking it into account, but if it was fake that is in no way an absolution.
While Silver expressed that when he saw the second Instagram Live video he was extremely disappointed, he also cautioned that the league’s role isn’t simply to punish Morant as extensively as it can. The goal here is not to make a statement. It’s to help Morant become a more responsible human being.
“I also think it’s important to point out this is not just discipline, and then we’ll just cross our fingers and hope there’s not a third time,” Silver said to Patrick. “I recognize that he needs some assistance from the league office, the union, his team…
“I want to find a way where, frankly, he’s not being kicked to the curb but basketball will take a back seat. And first and foremost, we’re gonna focus on him as a young man developing as a better person and someone who’s more responsible, particularly when it comes to guns.”
The day that Morant recorded that second head-scratching IG Live video, just before 5 a.m. CST he sent out a morose tweet. This is just over two weeks after the Grizzlies had lost in their first-round series against the Los Angeles Lakers, and two months almost to the day since the first IG Live gun incident went viral.
Morant sent out one sentence, and limited who could reply to it, hours before the live video that has the commissioner answering questions about him during the NBA Finals. “Seem to go my hardest when I’m going thru it.”
It did not take him 24 hours after that tweet to be recorded in the middle of self-destructive behavior. Silver is correct, if Morant is going to get his act together it’s going to require more than the NBA simply sending him away for a couple of months.
The league of course has selfish reasons to take all measures necessary to see to it that Morant comports himself in a much better manner. He is one of the NBA’s most popular American players who is under 25 years old. Morant brings eyeballs to the screen which increases the value of the 30 franchises. His self-sabotaging his career is terrible for business.
From a more human perspective, Morant needs some help to save his life. A wellness check was called after he sent out an Instagram post in late May in which he told his family that he loved them and ended it with “bye.” Less than a month out from that, information is being given to a guest host on The Breakfast Club that the gun in the second video was a toy.
This is erratic behavior that in no way was going to be fixed with an eight-game suspension and some breathing exercises. Morant needs to be away from the floor for a while, but not only to be punished for representing the NBA in an unfavorable light. He needs to overhaul the way that he lives his life.
The final destination on the road he is headed to is not a happy place. Not only is his mental health a serious concern but so is his physical health. He can get hurt, possibly fatally. He is young and he is Black in America. The dangers are both intrapersonal and interpersonal. If a legitimate source from his camp sent information to Jordan that the gun in the second video was a toy, then Morant is still a long way away from a consistent safe decision-making process.
He is going to miss a significant portion of the 2023-24 season. It will make the NBA a worse television product. However, he deserves to be punished. Morant gave the impression of contrition with the commissioner of the NBA and then two months later committed the same offense he got in trouble for the first time.
Silver is right to keep him off of the floor, but he also has the right idea as to why. Whatever suspension he levies will not be done to prove he is as tough as his predecessor, the late David Stern. It will be done as part of a plan to try and help a young man who is struggling with the responsibilities of stardom and adulthood.