Ja Morant tries to bury apology during playoff game
When should an NBA player publish a message he wants to get heard? Not during the fourth quarter of a playoff game.
Ja Morant released an apology for allegedly holding up a gun on Instagram Live for the second time since March. But he did it the same way the government releases a bad jobs report: After business hours, when everyone is paying attention to something else.
ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski posted the statement at 10:39 p.m. ET, during the fourth quarter of Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals. If Morant needed to issue the statement, but wanted it to have the least possible impact, he almost couldn't have chosen a better time.
Morant also may have wanted people to ignore the striking similarities between this statement and the one he issued in March after the first gun incident.
In March, Morant said he "took full responsibility for my actions." Tuesday night, Morant said he took "full accountability for my actions."
In March, Morant said, "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." Tuesday night, he said, "I’m committed to continuing to work on myself." It's not clear that Morant or his camp bothered to write a new apology, or just reworded the previous one.
The Memphis Grizzlies suspended Morant from all team activities, but that's somewhat of a hollow gesture considering that the season is over. Maybe he's not allowed to go to Summer League or voluntary workouts?
After the last gun incident, Morant reportedly went to a facility in Florida for counseling. It's not clear what Morant's "work on himself" will consist of this time, but he may have a lot of time to do it.
Commissioner Adam Silver suspended Morant for eight games back in March. This time, it may be a much more serious punishment.
"An eight-game suspension was pretty serious," Silver told ESPN's Malika Andrews Tuesday night. "And something that to me, he seemed to take incredibly seriously...I was left with the sense that he was taking this seriously. Honestly I was shocked when I saw that video."
With his actions, and with his apology, it doesn't seem like Morant — or the Grizzlies — are taking any of this seriously. But Morant's discipline is likely to be quite serious indeed.
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