Charles Barkley is at TD Garden Wednesday night for the coverage of Game 1 of the 2023 NBA Eastern Conference Finals between the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics, but prior to that matchup, the Basketball Hall of Famer shared his thoughts on the ongoing saga of Memphis Grizzlies point guard Ja Morant.
“Yo, man, when you're making $100 million a year to play sports, your life changes. There are certain rules and regulations you have to live by, plain and simple. You can't do stupid stuff. That's the trade-off, Barkley said early in his rant about the Ja Morant situation.
Barkley would then proceed to outline why Ja Morant needs to learn a lesson, as he mentioned the luxury the young point guard is enjoying as compared to ordinary folks making a living.
“Now, if you want to do all that stuff and give all that money back, more power to you. You can make that stance. You know what I want to do? What I want to do? I want to flash my gun and make videos and do things. Okay, that's fine. But you can't make money on the NBA doing this stuff. I just hope that he grows up and realize, like, yo, man, first of all, you're not a thug. You're not a criminal. You're not a crook. You're a guy making $200 million a year to dribble a stupid basketball. We all hit the lottery to do something there's people out there work nine to 5, 8-9 hours a week going to make $25,000 a year. They will kill to be in our situation.”
Barkley closed out his statement by saying that Ja Morant needs to “look in the mirror” and admit that he's the “problem.”
Ja Morant has been suspended anew by the Grizzlies after a video surfaced online showing him flashing a gun during an Instagram Live session last Saturday.
This is not the first time for Ja Morant to be caught in the middle of such controversy. He was already suspended last March for brandishing a gun in another IG Live video while at a club in Denver.
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