Another scandal about the NBA star
The investigation into the renewed scandal video is the third known investigation by the NBA into misconduct by Ja Morant
Quelle: Getty Images via AFP/JUSTIN FORD
Ja Morant has been suspended for the second time in just a few months. The star of the NBA team Memphis Grizzlies made his second public appearance with a weapon-like object. Now his team and the league have a big problem.
NBA pro Ja Morant of the Memphis Grizzlies has apologized and vowed to get better after his second suspension in a short amount of time. “I know I’ve disappointed a lot of people who have supported me,” Morant said in a released statement. “This is a journey and I am aware that there is still a lot to do. My words may not mean much right now, but I take full responsibility for my actions. I am determined to keep working on myself.”
The basketball pro was seen on stream with what appeared to be a gun for the second time in less than three months. The first time the NBA suspended him for eight games in March, he lost about $669,000 in salary. What happens now – the Grizzlies were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the Los Angeles Lakers – is unclear. The Grizzlies suspended Morant from all team activities.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver was shocked that investigations into the new incident are ongoing. “He could have injured, maimed or killed himself or someone else with such an act,” Silver told ESPN. Morant has an incredibly large fan base. “And my concern is – and I thought he shared it with me – that millions, if not tens of millions, of children around the world would see him as if he had done something that in some ways involved the use of a firearm celebrated in this way.” In the USA there are shootings every day, time and again children die in amok sprees.
The re-video investigation is the NBA’s third known investigation into misconduct by Morant, who is by far the highest-paid professional on the Grizzlies roster and is expected to earn $194 million over five years starting next season. He has contracts with Nike and Powerade, but the sports drink company pulled a commercial featuring Morant immediately after the March video.
Wembanyama is making positive headlines in the NBA
Meanwhile, there is also electrifying news from the NBA cosmos. On Wednesday, Victor Wembanyama finally stimulated the imagination and hopes of NBA executives and fans in the past few months like no basketball player has in 20 years – and will in all likelihood make his NBA debut in the jersey of the San Antonio Spurs with legendary coach Gregg Enter Popovich on the sidelines. No one has doubted that since the Spurs were given the right to the first so-called pick in the NBA draft on June 22 in the lottery on Tuesday evening in Chicago. He is considered the greatest talent since LeBron James, possibly even better than the King.
So the 19-year-old Frenchman will become a Texan like his famous compatriot Tony Parker – and he likes the prospect. “I love Texas, I’ve been there before,” he reported, following the procedure that was so important for his career in the middle of the night from Paris. “You get a team player. I will do everything to win as many games as possible. I want to win a ring as soon as possible. Be ready,” he told ESPN. Rings are for championships in the NBA.
Hours earlier he had scored 22 points for the Metropolitans 92 in the last main round game and secured the scoring title in the French league. In the audience in the small hall, French stars also wanted to see one of his last games before starting a career in the world‘s best basketball league: actor Omar Sy (“Pretty Best Friends”) and ex-soccer world champion Kylian Mbappé.
To ensure equal opportunities, there is a system in the NBA that weaker teams can access the talent registered for the draft earlier than better teams. The top positions will be raffled among the teams that didn’t make the play-offs, with the best chances for the weakest teams. The Spurs had a record of 22 wins and 60 losses in the main round. Nobody was worse. But with Wembanyama – also known as “generational talent” in the US media – the Spurs are immediately a play-off team again according to experts and have good chances of winning the sixth championship with Popovich as coach in the coming years.