It's not so fine in the West
NBA's Western Conference has been so volatile this season and this week could make or break the west.
The Western Conference in this year’s NBA season has been more unpredictable than Kyrie Irving’s antics (google him, I dare you)! While unpredictability is fun for an outsider, a Golden State fan like me has a nervous breakdown every other day!
The Western Conference is one of the two conferences in the National Basketball Association (NBA), the other being the Eastern Conference. The NBA is divided into two conferences, each consisting of 15 teams. The Western Conference consists of teams primarily from the western half of the United States, along with one Canadian team (the Toronto Raptors).
Current Standings (Western Conference):
While at least the top 10 teams are fighting for a play-off run this year, the remaining are tanking (losing wantedly but they won’t accept it) so that they will have better odds at drafting Victor Wembanyama in the next season’s draft. FYI, Victor Wembanyama is a 7'3" prodigy from France, the best basketball prospect in a generation, who can re-define the fortunes of the team that drafts him.
Now that that’s out of the way, I want to talk about one team (or one player) in the West who is trying so hard to fumble the bag. Yes, I want to talk about Grizzlies’ Ja Morant or should I say Ja Moron.
Ja Morant is the flamboyant Point Guard of Memphis Grizzlies. He is a walking highlight reel and the bad-boy character he brought to the NBA has garnered more attention to the game. Earlier this season, he also signed a contract extension which would pay him close to $200Mn over 5 years.
When Ja famously said in an interview that the Grizzlies are “fine in the west” everyone rolled their eyes but did think the Grizzlies could make a deep play-off run. The Grizzlies, however, have been struggling since that interview and Ja has been clowned for it.
Ja Morant, father of a little girl, NBA star with big sponsorship deals coming up (Nike signature shoe and Powerade commercial) and the face of a franchise is trying so hard to lose it all.
“70% of lotto winners lose or spend all their money in 5 years or less,” according to a Reader's Digest article.
“78% of professional athletes go broke after just 3 years of retirement,” according to Craig Brown, an NKSFB Sports Business Division partner.
Although seemingly unrelated, what’s not being talked about in both these instances is the rapid accumulation of wealth combined with a poor understanding of risk management, and the naivety that the money will always be there.
You see… Temetrius Jamel "Ja" Morant comes from a happy home. His mother and father have a good marriage and he didn’t have to struggle while growing up. But this man wants to be something he is not. He wants to be looked at like he is from the hood (basically like a guy from the projects or slum in Indian terms).
According to The Athletic, in an incident that triggered an NBA investigation: “Acquaintances of Grizzlies star Ja Morant aggressively confronted members of the Pacers traveling party near the team’s bus in the loading area of FedExForum, and later someone in a slow-moving SUV — which Morant was riding in — trained a red laser on them.”
According to the Washington Post: “Morant repeatedly punched a teenage boy in the head during a pickup basketball game at Morant’s house, the boy told police.” The 17-year-old told detectives that “Morant went into his house and re-emerged with a gun visible in the waistband of his pants and his hand on the weapon.’” The WaPo report also includes an allegation that the superstar shoved and threatened a mall security guard last summer.
Last week, Ja followed up a blowout loss in Denver by Instagramming himself, shirtless, waving a gun around a strip club.
That last incident is the one that precipitated Morant’s six-game (and counting) suspension by the Grizzlies, and potentially a longer league suspension.
What is baffling here is that the people closest to him have not publicly spoken anything against Ja. The violent actions are instead met with modern therapeutic language.
Ja could turn this all around by accepting his mistakes and learning from it. Look at how Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson turned it around after facing similar issues.
But for now not everything is fine in the west.
Rohith’s Corner:
Your boy is now a Spotify artist!!! (sort of)
Tune into “Let’s Hark” podcast series to listen to an amazing discussion on the importance of sustainability in aviation industry and how it is shaping the future of the industry.
LISTEN HERE or scan the code below in your Spotify app.
