Ja Morant Breaks Silence on Carrying a Gun in Instagram Video
Ja Morant says the gun in his Instagram video was not his.
by Farbod Esnaashari
It's been a little under two weeks since the last time Ja Morant made a statement about carrying a gun in an Instagram live video that resulted in his suspension. Morant sat down in a 1-on-1 interview with Jalen Rose, where he finally spoke at length about the situation.
"The gun wasn't mine," Morant said in an interview with Jalen Rose. "It's not who I am. I don't condone any type of violence, but I take full responsibility for my actions. I've made a bad mistake. I can see the image that I painted over myself with my recent mistakes. In the future, I'm gonna show everybody who Ja really is, what I'm about, and change this narrative."
While the gun in the video wasn't Ja Morant's, he was very happy about holding it in his own Instagram video, which is more so the bigger issue. It will take some time to see whether Morant is sincere in his words, and hopefully, he is. He's too important of a superstar and too important to the future of the NBA to allow something like this to derail his career.
The NBA has officially suspended Ja Morant for eight games after their investigation into him displaying a gun on March 4. That consequence isn't over whose gun it was in the video, it was over him displaying it. It is with the most sincere hope that Ja Morant uses that time to really understand how important he is to his community and surrounds himself with better people.
I intentionally didn't link the video interview between Morant and Jalen Rose here, as I personally think it was insincere and simply a crafted PR stunt. I also think the lack of leadership in Adam Silver and the NBA is more apparent with this issue, adding to the many missteps done since 2014-15. Personally, this incident made me less of an NBA fan.
