Temetrius Jamel ‘Ja’ Morant. If you’re not an aficionado of NBA Basketball, you may not have heard of him, and, if you have, it might not have been in the best of contexts. The Memphis Grizzlies point guard, for those no au fait with the fast-paced, five-a-side action, think midfielder in GAA or soccer or a fly half in rugby or, maybe the most applicable example, a quarter back in American Football. A conductor of the orchestra if you will.
Except for too much of the recent past, Morant’s appearance in media coverage has been concerning everything but his undoubted talent underneath the hoop. With disciplinary problems on and off the court seemingly sticking around him like flies on a dung pile.
Now, the on court ones would be bad enough – getting involved in quite the scrap with Andrew Nembhard of the Indiana Pacers – after the latter engaged in an exchange of verbals with Morant’s father, at which point another associate of Morant’s also entered the altercation and was subsequently ejected from the stadium.
You’d have thought that would’ve been enough for anybody to be dealing with, but no. The hostilities continued out at the Pacers team bus, where it was alleged somebody travelling with the Grizzlies forward produced a weapon. Then, in two separate incidents, he was filmed live on Instagram actually firing a gun.
From a purely basketball administrative viewpoint, Adam Silver et al are to be commended for the expedience with which they delivered judgement of and sanction on Morant’s case.
Hitting the player with a 25 game suspension, which overlapped the conclusion of last season and the beginning of the current one. Whilst presumably levying him with a large fine also.
But, what prompted production of what you are reading was surprise at the lack of reaction to the whole situation from outside of sporting circles. One of the great American contradictions.
As someone who watches and listens to an awful lot of true crime and forensic science documentaries, the amount of people sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole is so high it’s actually ridiculous.
Obviously, for murder and the like is understandable, but even at that, you do wonder is the ‘lock up and throw away the key’ solution really the best option available?
Anyway, whatever about that specific issue, I cannot recall there being much – or any – talk of police involvement in the Morrant case. Not that I would like to see it becoming a thing. But knowing the way they operate in the States, sometimes they’d fire people in jail for blowing their nose the wrong way!
To be fair to him, the player himself appears to have learned the lessons of his errant ways, because he has been in fine form since his return from the ban, and for that, Memphis coach Taylor Jenkins deserves great credit for the manner in which he’s handled both the matter and the player.
Mind you, it’s a long road that has no turn. Just when Ja appeared to have everything back on an even keel, a shoulder injury has put him back on the sidelines. But, if that doesn’t see him laid up for too long, he could still end up leading his team into the play offs.
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Elsewhere in the NBA, one is still trying to adjust to the fact that Steve Kerr allowed Klay Thompson to leave the Golden State Warriors. Surely the arrangement should have been that the Splash brothers – Thompson and Stephen Curry – (and Draymond Green) finish out their careers together in the shadows of the Golden Gate bridge
To be fair to Kerr though, yet again he appears to have got the transition spot on, as the likes of Buddy Hield, Brandon Podziemski, Kevon Looney and Jonathan Kuminga (though the latter is currently out with an ankle injury) amply backing up Curry as they sit on they sit on the cusp of the play offs once again. Should they turn up thence, they would still require utmost respect.
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That said, no doubt there will be surprise packets who will, at the very least give some of the big noises plenty of problems. Teams such as the Charlotte Hornetts, the Orlando Magic and the Atlanta Hawks.
The latter in particular have caught this writer’s one working eye of late. Mostly due to their fine run in the newly styled NBA Cup. The first step American sport has taken to deviate from their gun barrell straight view of things. With the Cup – involving all 30 NBA teams – run off on a round robin basis untll the number of teams is whittled down to eight and from there it’s knock out with quarter finals, semis and a final.
Not quite the FA Cup, but a step in the right direction. We might get them believing in the concept of the draw yet!
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