Mark Harris
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Ja Morant’s suspension following his incident involving him flashing a gun in an Instagram Live stream ended on Monday. Morant sat on the Memphis Grizzlies’ bench in street clothes and watched his team come from behind to beat the Dallas Mavericks.
The Grizzlies’ superstar received a standing ovation when he entered the arena just before the opening tip and looked both happy and relieved to finally be back on the hardwood, even if he wasn’t playing in the game.
Morant was also the first person off the bench during timeouts to hype his teammates in what was a back-and-forth game against a Western Conference foe.
After the game, Morant jumped into a postgame interview with Santi Aldama and shouted ‘It’s a parade inside my city, yeahhh’ which has long been the Grizzlies’ postgame anthem after a win.
‘It’s a parade inside my city, yeah’ is the opening lyric to rapper NBA Youngboy’s ‘Fresh Prince of Utah,’ a song the Grizzlies as a team constantly listen to on gamedays.
Given that it’s a lyric from a rap song, Morant shouldn’t be saying it, according to Skip Bayless.
Skip Bayless Unfairly Calls Out Ja Morant After He Quotes A Rap Lyric
During Tuesday’s edition of ‘Undisputed’ Bayless went on a three-minute rant about how it’s a bad look for Morant to be shouting rap lyrics after the gun incident.
Bayless essentially said ‘Ja Morant shouldn’t be listening to rap music’ without actually saying those words. Oh, and he said all this before ragging on Morant for hyping up his teammates during timeouts claiming he was simply trying to be in the center of attention.
Morant deserves criticism for his past actions and incredibly dumb decisions. I myself even wrote a column about how he needs to drop the tough guy act, not just for his future but for the entire city of Memphis, but Bayless’ reaction here is beyond over the top.
READ: JA MORANT VOLUNTEERS TO COME OFF THE BENCH FOLLOWING SUSPENSION, DILLON BROOKS SHUTS DOWN THE IDEA
Bayless sounds like a guy who is already set on Morant failing. He’s openly rooting against him on national television after a game in which Morant didn’t play one second.
Again, Morant is responsible for putting this new tightly focused microscope following his every move from here on out, but anyone in the media criticizing him for quoting a song lyric and smiling with his teammates simply isn’t fair.
Follow Mark Harris on Twitter @ItIsMarkHarris
