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Over the weekend, Memphis Grizzlies star guard Ja Morant found himself in hot water as he once again was seen brandishing a handgun while on Instagram Live.
Following the original incident, Morant was suspended for eight games, and now that he’s a repeat offender, there’s speculation the league could hit him with a double-digit suspension at the start of next season, possibly in the neighborhood of 20 games.
Current NBA analyst and potential future head coach JJ Redick, however, doesn’t agree with the league’s treatment of Morant. Appearing on First Take on Wednesday, Redick went on a rant about the fact that Morant actually hasn’t broken any laws and therefore shouldn’t be getting in this sort of trouble with the league.
“As far as we know, all of these things [recent incidents involving Morant] have been investigated and no laws have been broken,” Redick said.
“I’m not condoning the behavior, I’m not saying there should be no punishment. There should be consequences. You are the face of the league. You are representing the NBA. You are a role model to young kids. I don’t think half-a-season [suspension] is the right answer,” he continued.
At this point in Redick’s rant, however, he’ll likely begin to lose some of the people out there who thought they agreed with him, as he then name-checked the absurdity of the gun laws in this country and that it’s a much bigger issue than what Ja Morant is doing on Instagram.
“The guns on social media… we talk about consequences. Look, in our country right now, gun culture is pervasive. We’ve got mass shooting after mass shooting and nobody is doing a damn thing about it. So I get why we’re so sensitive to this,” Redick said.
“But there’s no consequence for Texas governor Greg Abottt telling his constituents that they should go buy more guns and then we have mass shooting after mass shooting in Texas. There’s no consequence for an elected Tennessee official sending a Christmas card holding AR-15s with his young family and then there’s a shooting in his very district. There are 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 asks “Why are we trying to lay down the hammer on a 23-year-old who didn’t break a law?” when there’s no consequence for Greg Abbott telling people to buy more guns pic.twitter.com/dUc8imA9dj
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 17, 2023
During the NBA Draft Lottery on Tuesday night, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said that the incident — which left him “shocked” — is currently being investigated by the league and that a punishment for Morant will be handed down when the investigation has concluded.