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Ja Morant spoke to the media Friday for the first time since the end of last season and the announcement of his 25-game suspension that ends Monday. The Memphis Grizzlies’ All-NBA guard said all of the right things while acknowledging that his behavior is critically more important than a soundbite.
“I can’t make anyone believe me outside of my actions,” Morant said. “So me answering this question with words probably won’t mean anything.”
He’s not wrong, and he also was correct about his role in the team’s brutal record.
“I take full responsibility of that, even though I’m not out on the floor. Decisions I made didn’t allow me to be out there to go to battle with my team.”
At 6-18, it’ll be a long climb back to playoff contention this season, but it is achievable. The defense is there, and Morant’s scoring and playmaking should fix what ails the offense. After 24 games last season, the Los Angeles Lakers were 10-14, and course-corrected their narrative with the help of the play-in and ironically the Grizzlies, who were circling the drain after myriad injuries and Morant’s off-court antics.
Though Memphis’ odds are longer, and there’s little to no room for error the rest of the way, I’ll reluctantly admit the upside to Adam Silver’s play-in gimmick. The four teams currently in the bubble have a seven- to eight-game advantage as it stands, but the Grizz only need one of the Clippers, Suns, Pelicans or Rockets to falter, and the scenarios in which those clubs go cold are plentiful.
In order to get back to .500, Memphis must go 35-23 the rest of the way. That’s not asking too much considering we’ve seen Morant, Desmond Bane, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Co. go scorched earth before in the regular season. The prize at the end of play-in could be the Minnesota Timberwolves, whom Memphis beat in the postseason two years back.
Regardless of the potential opponent, or if the Grizzlies can fight their way out of the cellar, teams won’t want to play them any more than the Lakers last year. That’s the kind of untapped potential Grit and Grind possess, and let’s be honest, the NBA is more fun when Morant is playing and relevant.
One of Morant’s quotes that might get overplayed, or taken out of context, from Friday’s media availability is when he said he has no regrets.
“Obviously, feel like I’m not done learning myself or learning new things,” Morant said. “I see why the things that happened, happened. But I can’t say I sit up here and regret it because in the end, I feel like it made me better.”
The reason that’s different from Draymond Green saying, “I don’t live my life with regrets” after the Rudy Gobert chokehold is Green made no attempt to learn from his mistakes.
I’m sure if you asked Morant directly, he’d say that given a redo, he wouldn’t flash guns on Instagram Live. We’ll see if he’s actually matured, and knows right from egregiously stupid, but not all hard times need be removed from our psyches.
Some people have to burn themselves to learn not to touch the oven. That’s probably not a great example because Morant isn’t 2 years old, and I don’t think second-degree burns are the normal method of teaching children not to touch the stove.
At the same time, Morant and a few teammates acted as if consequences didn’t exist a year ago. From barking at Shannon Sharpe to whatever happened in the parking lot against the Indiana Pacers, the best way to describe the 2022 Grizzlies is really, really dumb.
The confidence the rest of the roster had about its record without Ja Morant has surely been wiped away, and those other missing pieces — Brandon Clarke, Tyus Jones and Dillon Brooks — showed how quickly a team can go from boisterous frontrunner to rubbing elbows with franchises trying to lose games. Fortunately for the Memphis Grizzlies, they don’t have to wait a full season for a second chance.
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