Buckle up, kids, because I have a LOT of thoughts about Friday’s announcement that the Grizzlies were now entertaining trade offers for its franchise star, Ja Morant.
The Grizzlies’ front office is being messy as hell with how they’ve handled this situation with Morant, and it’s all compounded by the fact that, due to injuries, the team’s starting rotation players have played zero minutes together.
It’s hard to see the vision when they’ve been the “Hospital Grizzlies” again, but the team has pieces that, when put together, can play top-notch ball at the highest levels.
You can see glimpses of it when Morant has been healthy enough — he plays like the explosive player they drafted. But players intended to fit certain complementary roles have played zero minutes.
How can you determine if something isn’t working if that thing hasn’t been tried?
In the vein of “If you give a mouse a cookie,” if Memphis trades Morant, they will enrage their fanbase, lots of season-ticket holders will stop renewing, any deal between the Grizzlies and the City of Memphis regarding leasing FedExForum could sour, and Robert Pera could move the team to another market.
I do not understand how the Grizzlies’ front office watched last year, when (now former) Dallas general manager Nico Harrison was proverbially burned at the stake by the Mavericks fanbase after he facilitated the trade of Dallas’s beloved franchise star, Luka Dončić, to the Los Angeles Lakers in the middle of the season, and thought, hey, why don’t we do that here in Memphis?
How do you see that and all the fallout from it, and think it’s a good idea to do the same thing here?
Memphis will never get another player of Morant’s caliber again, and if the organization proceeds along those lines, it will mark the beginning of the end of NBA basketball in the 901. Fans will abandon this team in droves.
Don’t forget that a lease renewal between the Grizzlies and the city of Memphis has not yet been finalized, and the current one on the books is due to expire at the end of the 2028-29 season.
Do you want to lose your NBA franchise? Because this is how you lose your NBA franchise.
Ja Morant is the franchise player, and that guy sells tickets and gets butts in seats and eyeballs on the broadcast when he plays.
He’s still 8th in most popular jersey and merchandise sales, and his shoe line sells out at every drop.
All of this is in spite of the fact he’s spent more time on the injured list than he has on the court over the past few season.
A narrative persists about Morant, following his off-court struggles and 2023 suspensions, even though he has left that behavior behind. It has been nearly three years since those incidents.
I want to make it clear that I don’t condone carelessly and casually flashing a gun on Instagram live, or otherwise, for that matter. The internet is forever. But I do not buy the bullshit reasoning about him being an unredeemable player that Grizzlies should be traded because he (stupidly) flashed a handgun on Instagram.
Especially not in Tennessee, where we have permit-less open carry and members of the state legislature who send out holiday cards picturing them and their children posing with guns. Please be fucking serious right now.
One day, we are going to talk about who is allowed to be casual about participating in gun culture and who is not, and what the difference is.
There are absolutely undercurrents of racism and dislike of Black culture that affect how Morant’s actions are perceived. But some of y’all aren’t ready for that conversation.
One thing I have noticed from watching far, far too many clips of national media talking about Ja Morant and the Grizzlies is the thinly veiled disdain for the city and the team.
Maybe it is my own bias showing, but as a life-long Memphian, this feels personal. There’s an underlying sentiment that Ja Morant can’t thrive in Memphis because Memphis isn’t a place where people can thrive.
And make no mistake: from a national media standpoint, there’s no shortage of voices who WANT to see Morant leave Memphis and the Grizzlies to go be great elsewhere, i.e., a more desirable media market.
There is something special about having the core of your team so locked in with the city, and the years with the Core Four weren’t a loss because they didn’t win a championship.
A team built around Ja and Jaren Jackson Jr. is the next iteration of that concept.
Protect the investment, protect the vision, protect the culture.
Robert Pera and the Grizzlies front office need to rededicate to going all in on Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr. to build around.
They managed to grab two generational talents via the draft and they won’t find another superstar duo that fits so well with this team and this city and this fanbase.
Winning a championship is the ultimate goal for a professional sports team, but not winning one doesn’t mean the season was a waste.
In closing, I’d like to pose a question to the “get rid of Morant by any means necessary” crowd:
Who exactly do you think will be a better option?
There are no star players just itching to come to the league’s smallest media market.
A mostly washed Andre Iguodala famously refused to even show up to training camp when he was traded here from Golden State.
Don’t forget that the biggest star the Grizzlies have ever acquired outside the draft was Chandler Parsons.
Ja Morant is a generational talent, and this franchise would do well not to fumble him.
*Correction: the Grizzlies’ lease at FedEx Forum does not expire in 2027; it extends through the 2028-29 season
