Ja Morant is a dog on the basketball court.
A pure competitor who is focused on winning, Morant is attempting to turn around a season that saw him miss 25 games for his off-the-court antics and pull the Grizzlies from their current 13th position in the Western Conference. However, with Morant, his ambition will never be clean as it comes with some nontraditional actions.
For instance, en route to topping the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday 116-115 and achieving a 4-0 win streak since Ja Morant’s return, Morant celebrated after a play with a trigger finger motion at the end of the celly. It’s a head-scratching moment, but it is time to come to a finite conclusion about Ja Morant: he is toxic, which makes him great.
Western Conference Player Of The Week
Morant earned Western Conference Player of the Week honors for Dec. 18 to 24, the NBA announced Tuesday, for averaging 28.0 points, 9.0 assists, and 5.7 rebounds per game in wins over the New Orleans Pelicans, Indiana Pacers, and Atlanta Hawks. Memphis won four straight games for the first time this season.
But it is a truism that the old guard and the currently conservative must face, today’s athletic superstar loves NBA Youngboy, griddy dances down the court, and uses gun references to make an ‘in-your-face’ boast after scoring. Morant is an original representative of today’s young energy in its rawest form. Social constructs like decency, civility, and winning in understated fashion have been replaced with boastfulness, confidence mistaken as cockiness and the most ethereal references to eliminating the competition, hence the trigger fingers.
Unfortunately, this is Morant’s David Stern to Allen Iverson moment in the court of public opinion.
During the 2005-2006 NBA season, David Stern made the NBA the first major sports league to have a dress code. However, the reasoning felt thinly veiled. The dress code required athletes to “wear business casual attire” to games and a sports coat with dress shoes on the bench. Stern’s move was a direct answer to players like Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony, who made hood chic part of NBA culture.
Dan Patrick reported that Stern’s dress code was in direct response for him hating the way Steve Nash dressed at press conferences but the world has chosen to label it the Iverson Rule.
Cultural Divide
Although the restrictions on clothing have been eliminated, other cultural constants like weapon mimicry as a celebratory stance are being ushered in just like gang signs were lowkey introduced to the hardwood.
The focus on Morant’s professional decorum for celebrations is a guttural representation of his killer mentality. Maybe he begins to question going hard on the court if he can’t rejoice naturally.
Ja Morant is toxic, from his off-the-court persona to his celebrations when leading the team out of the bottom of the Western Conference. For owners, GMs, and coaches who want to win with Morant, it’s time to let some of his childishness go because to get the best of Morant, he still will do something toxic.
It is what it is.
