Keep Him From Dribbling In The NBA For A Long Stretch

Within the next few days, hours or even minutes, the combination of NBA commissioner Adam Silver and executives of the Memphis Grizzlies, Nike and Powerade can save Ja Morant from himself.

He’s crying for help. He’s a 23-year-old NBA megastar who keeps doing crazier things by the moment, and if this continues beyond just a little while, he’s headed for the slammer or the morgue, whichever comes first.

Here’s the solution, but it’ll take a lot of Silver and those executives of the Grizzlies, Nike and Powerade. They must do their version of burning a hole in the piggybank of the Grizzlies point guard, or they must keep him from dribbling just shy of forever (at least in his mind) in the NBA.

Actually, they must do both, but if they have the guts for just one, they should do so by going for the slam dunk instead of the layup.

Oh, well.

“We appreciate Ja’s accountability and that he is taking the time to get the help he needs. We support his prioritization of his well-being,” Nike said in a statement to The Athletic Saturday.

To translate, the world’s most famous sports apparel company that just released Morant’s new signature shoe ($400 for a pair of Ja 1 “Midnight” and $110 for the others) basically shrugged after an Instagram live video went viral showing Morant holding what appeared to be a handgun.

The Nike statement was in response to Morant’s statement on his outrageously tone-deaf video that was posted earlier Saturday: “I take full responsibility for my actions last night. I’m sorry to my family, teammates, coaches, fans, partners, the city of Memphis and the entire Grizzlies organization for letting you down. I’m going to take some time away to get help and work on learning better methods of dealing with stress and my overall well-being.”

Maybe Morant’s statement was from the heart. Then again, it sounded like it was from the head, as in “What can I say to appease folks after the Grizzlies’ response to my video?” His franchise announced its spark plug toward becoming the NBA Western Conference’s second-best franchise in the standings at 38-25 would “be away from the team for at least the next two games.”

Weak. Very weak. Even weaker, the Powerade folks made Morant their first athlete partnership in more than five years, but regarding his growing image problems, they’ve said nothing.

Nike and Grizzlies said much to Morant with dollar signs.

In December, Nike officials made Morant the 23rd person ever to receive one of their signature shoes. The debut was this month. You would think they (Nike officials, along with the Grizzlies who signed Morant before the season as the face of their franchise to a five-year contract for $193 million) wouldn’t like any of “this,” and “this” goes beyond that Instagram video.

For instance: The Athletic was among the news outlets reporting in late January that multiple people on the Indiana Pacers team bus saw a red dot pointed their way after a game in Memphis against the Grizzlies. A Pacers security guard thought the laser was attached to a gun.

According to the website, Morant and his crew rode “in a slow-moving SUV” when the laser was directed at the bus after a similar incident near the loading area of the arena.

There also was The Washington Post reporting in July that Morant fumed during a pickup basketball game at his home in Tennessee and allegedly punched a 17-year-old boy 12 times before Morant went into the house and returned with a gun that he carried in his waistband with his hand on the weapon.

That’s at least two gun incidents involving Morant.

Which leaves the NBA to do what’s needed here.

If you go by precedent, Morant should get whacked big time from a sports league whose legendary former commissioner David Stern suspended Washington Wizards star Gilbert Arenas in January 2010 indefinitely without pay over a gun incident. He was photographed using his fingers to intimate shooting a gun at his teammates.

At the time, Arenas was under investigation by federal and local authorities for bringing guns into the Wizards locker room.

Arenas missed 50 games.

That would be a start for Morant.