Ja Morant's biggest crime is embarrassing the NBA

The Memphis Grizzlies suspended Ja Morant indefinitely after he flashed a gun on Instagram Live, two months after he got an eight-game suspension for ... flashing a gun on Instagram Live.

NBA commissioner Silver's ominous comments implied that the severity of Morant's suspension was enough to eclipse the NBA Finals. That suggests it's not going to be another eight games, or even 16 — the league likely wouldn't wait were that the case.

The "additional information" that the NBA uncovered might have been related to the most recent incident. But it also could have been about other Morant incidents from the past year, from the alleged assaults on a teenager and a mall security guard, to possibly pointing a gun at the Indiana Pacers team bus. 

There's an NBA rule that prohibits taking a gun on team property or traveling on team business, and the Collective Bargaining Agreement allows the commissioner to suspend a player who violates the rule for any length of time.

But as NBA insider Michael Pina explained on the Fastbreak Breakfast podcast, while guns are clearly a serious concern, the league may come down hard on Morant simply because of how much he embarrassed the league. The NBA clearly made a concerted effort to help rehabilitate the image of one of their most popular players. 

After the first gun incident, Morant entered a counseling program. He made a seemingly sincere apology. ESPN, the NBA's broadcast partner, broadcast an interview where Morant answered softball questions from Jalen Rose about the gun incident.

Essentially, the NBA, its broadcast partners and the Grizzlies all went to bat for Morant, who promised the incident was an aberration. Then two months later, he did the same thing. 

The NBA has professed to have zero tolerance about guns, but they gave Morant tolerance, and it appears that he's still being reckless with guns. And has allegedly been reckless with guns before.

It's not simply the guns at this point. It's that powerful people and organizations went to bat for Morant and he almost immediately violated their trust.

That's been a factor in NBA discipline recently. The NBA fined the Dallas Mavericks $750K for trying to lose a game against the Bulls in April to improve draft positioning. Not only was Dallas tanking, but they disrespected the league's play-in tournament. And they'd already been fined for tanking in 2018.

Pina said the NBA was poised to make Morant "the face of the league" before this year of scandals. Now that he's embarrassed the league, not to mention ESPN, Jalen Rose, Adam Silver and his own team, the NBA is poised to make an example of Morant.