NFL
By: Brock Vierra
Ja Morant. As someone who has been a fan of the NBA since I was six, I’ve watched both the game and the culture of basketball evolve. I’m not going to attempt to mince words, former commissioner David Stern took tremendous efforts to eliminate behavior from players who have been labeled as “thuggish” but more accurately as violent. I dislike the word thuggish because it never describes a pattern of behavior but more acts as a racial slur for a very specific group of people.
In the aftermath of the Malice in the Palace, David Stern instituted some of the harshest suspensions/ punishments in NBA history for on-court actions. The NBA overhauled its policies on player behavior, player engagement in the community, and it’s dress code. The baggy clothes were out and suits were in. The NBA played as many NBA Cares commercials as possible during their games and quite frankly refused to address the incident. In 2009, Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton of the Washington Wizards made headlines when they pulled guns on each other in the locker room. The NBA suspended both players for the rest of the season and essentially ended both their careers. Crittenton never played in the league again and is now in jail for involuntary manslaughter.
Gun culture was a part of the NBA but the league has eradicated anything that could allude to violent behavior or anything the media could deem as “thuggish.” So it came as a surprise to me when the league gave Ja Morant a lame two-game suspension for brandishing his firearm in a club. This is one in a string of off-court events that are deeply troubling and Morant has expressed a desire to grow and move on from these incidences.
However its more than just about him. Ja Morant is waving his gun around and throwing up gang signs like he’s from the hood but I’ve never met anyone from a gangster lifestyle who is young, rich, and free, all the things Morant is. People talk about what Morant is about to throw away but quite frankly, I could care less about what he and his family could lose, I care about what is already lost.
I am joined by other members here at Team NBS Media who have lost someone we knew due to gun violence. Gun culture is intertwined in American culture, so intertwined that it’s a rare thing to flip through the channels and not find a show where someone is getting shot. However, there’s a barrier of fiction that shows viewers that the actions depicted aren’t real.
Morant is real, Morant is a hero to many and is a potential future face of the league. Many kids across the country have seen his actions and like kids all over, they’ll emulate the actions of their hero.
I am a gun rights activist. I think it is your right to own a firearm. I also believe in and advocate for gun safety, gun legislation when it comes to ownership and transactions and I support mandatory training, licensing, and insurance when it comes to gun ownership. I also live in a state where open carry is legal and I guarantee you all eyes glance upon the person walking into the grocery store with a gun attached to their hip.
Guns make you a target. Guns make you vulnerable. If we have kids brandishing their guns like Morant did, we’re gonna have even more dead kids in the streets than there already are. I lost a classmate to gun violence. She was murdered in her own apartment in Oakland by a jealous ex-boyfriend. She was in her early twenties. My Grandma is about to turn 82 this month. My Grandma got to experience marriage, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. She got to see her means of communication turn from a rotary phone to an iPhone. She purchased and drove great cars, including the truck she just bought. She traveled the world, was a career woman, truly lived and she continues to keep living.
These are things my classmate will never get to experience. The next sixty years of life my classmate was supposed to have are gone and the worst part is her story is all too common and the last thing we need is a young, 23-year-old NBA superstar showing the next generation its cool to act like a banger.
My father grew up on the edge of the hood. He went to school, went to trade school, and has a job that has given me a phenomenal life. His neighbors, his boys, the guys he grew up with didn’t. They turned to crime, they pushed drugs and now half are in jail and the other half are dead.
The NBA needs to make an example of Ja Morant. For him and for the people who look up to him. To make ungodly amounts of money playing basketball is something Morant has earned but its also a privilege. Basketball is entertainment, it’s not life and death. The world keeps rolling whether the game is played or not but Morant’s inexcusable behavior is gonna get someone killed and that’s the thing I won’t except.
I am calling for Ja Morant to be suspended for the rest of the regular season and four games in the playoffs.
