Like so many NBA fans, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver seemed extremely disappointed on Tuesday when discussing Memphis guard Ja Morant’s latest gun-related incident.
Speaking with ESPN’s Malika Andrews, Silver said that the Instagram video of Morant that appears to show him toting a handgun in a car left him “shocked” though he wasn’t able to share what kind of punishment the league was considering at the moment.
“Honestly, I was shocked when I saw, this weekend, that video,” Silver said in a televised interview with ESPN before the draft lottery in Chicago. “We’re in the process of investigating it and we’ll figure out exactly what happened as best as we can. The video’s a bit grainy and all that, but I’m assuming the worst. We’ll figure out exactly what happened there.”
“Honestly, I was shocked when I saw this weekend — that video. Now, we’re in the process of investigating it."
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver spoke on Ja Morant after his latest video. pic.twitter.com/W0lX4E2fa4
— ESPN (@espn) May 16, 2023
After the previous incident in which Morant was seen with a gun, he was suspended for eight games and lost $669,000 in salary.
Silver added that when he watched the video he was extremely concerned for what could happen and how Morant could ruin his life and the lives of others.
“He could have injured, maimed, killed himself, someone else, with an act like that,” Silver said. “And also the acknowledgment that he’s a star. He has an incredibly huge following. And my concern, and I thought he shared with me, that millions if not tens of millions of kids globally would see him as having done something that was celebrating in a way that acts like using a firearm in that fashion.”
We’ll have to wait and see how the NBA punishes Morant over the latest incident, but we can certainly expect it to be major.
[NBA.com]
