Photo Credit: Ja Morant/Instagram

Grizzlies star Ja Morant is currently in a counseling program in Florida after a series of high profile disturbing events involving him waving a gun around on Instagram, pointing a gun laser at another team’s bus and beating upp a high schooler at his home. During the offseason he signed a five-year max rookie extension with Memphis that guaranteeing him $194.3 million, but he very well stands to lose 38.7 milllion for his shenanigans.

“An extended absence will likely derail Morant’s chances of earning an All-NBA selection this season despite averaging 27.1 points, six rebounds, and 8.2 assists per game. Morant also guided the Grizzlies to the second-best record in the Western Conference before being suspended,” Yard Barker reports. And this ads to other financial losses he’s experienced as of late to include Powerade pulling their ad campaign with him and Coca-Cola doing the same last week. He was set to be the new face of the new Powerade brand relaunch for a number of years but that’s no longer the case.

While Morant is in counseling, there’s no set date for him to return to the Grizzlies as of yet. He’s found himself to be the butt of sports and hip hop jokes with many scratching their heads wondering why someone who had a reasonable upbringing is behaving like he had some street background living like he’s in a rap video all the time. Chicago Bulls player Patrick Beverley says he’s “Lost his mind” and blames the parenting he had growing up. “Fame mixed with success mixed with a ton of money mixed with a ton of freedom in the wrong hands, it’s not a good poster,” Beverley said.

“I think music has a lot to do with this now. Especially with this culture. Everyone holding a gun in the video is okay,” Beverley added. “You know, bling on your teeth is okay. Pants half down your ass, that’s okay. So, that’s okay now. Back in the day, there was a motherf—er on the beach in a silk shirt talking about some ‘yeah baby, let’s party like we’re in the 80s.’ Everybody had on silk shirts, and everybody was dressed the same. It’s just a product of what we listen to.”

“The culture now is ‘shoot them up, bang bang, bang bang shoot them up, bend you over, I got this amount money, I’m on private jets,’ That’s what the younger generation is. Sadly to say, it should be based on our music, but it is mostly based on what we listen to, and that’s how it is. Eminem came out, and Eminem was rapping, ‘palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy,’ he had on a hoodie. Everybody back then had on a hoodie and big jeans. If Eminem would’ve came out like, ‘yeah I carry pipes, I carry straps, I got 12 guns,’ every White kid in America would’ve had a f—ing gun on them back then.”

Whatever is going on with Morant, for someone with such a bright future, hopefully this random distraction of him appearing to be a child wanting to live out his music video dreams won’t completely derail him.
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