Gilbert Arenas defends Ja Morant with controversial take

Grizzlies star Ja Morant's latest stunt of brandishing a gun at a Colorado club in an Instagram Live video on Saturday has rightfully drawn harsh criticism. One former NBA player familiar with such an incident offered a strong opinion on the matter.

Three-time All-Star Gilbert Arenas shared a controversial take on Morant's situation on his show, "Gil's Arena."

"When we're young, we do stupid s**t," Arenas said. "We're trying to pretend that 23 is real old? 23 with a lot of money, there's going to be some dumb s**t you do. Some of us get caught, some of us don't."

When asked if he would accept Morant's behavior if he were an owner, Arenas responded, "I do."

"I'm gonna do what every owner does: pretend I don't see it, I don't see nothing," Arenas continued. "Just grow up a little bit faster. You got too much time on your hands. You got to put Ja around somebody who's been the same way and actually got out of it safely."

Of course, Arenas has experience with gun use going back to his time in the NBA. Morant's news reminded many of Arenas' now-infamous Christmas Eve 2009 incident where he and teammate Javaris Crittenton drew guns on each other in Washington's locker room. Arenas' name even trended on Twitter after the Morant story broke.

In Arenas' case, the situation was different, as he allegedly owed Crittenton $1,100 from a card game, but that doesn't make Morant's incident any less troubling.

Though Arenas spoke from personal experience, and it would've been hypocritical to condemn Morant, a more appropriate approach would have been similar to ESPN's Jalen Rose's take.

Rather than downplaying the situation, Rose empathized with Morant during Saturday's "NBA Countdown." Rose reminded Morant that he has much to lose with his current lifestyle and should be careful about the people he has kept in his inner circle.