Saturday, May 20, 2023 | 2 a.m.
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Ja Morant is Michael Ray Richardson.
Not exactly, of course, but close.
When I read that Morant was once again suspended by the Memphis Grizzlies for once again flashing a gun in an insipid and wanton disregard for, well, anything, I thought of Michael Ray.
Once again.
In February 1986, Michael Ray became the first NBA player to be banned from the league after testing positive for cocaine use. It was his third such failed test, resulting in the banishment, per a policy that went into effect for the 1983-84 season.
It was the culmination of a nearly three-year saga for the all-star, all-defensive point guard for the New Jersey Nets. For an engaging, entertaining athlete whom you admired yet wanted to grab by the ears and shake from their stupor.
Charles Grantham was Michael Ray’s agent. He now heads the Center for Sports Management at Seton Hall University in New Jersey. We’ve known each other since those 1980s when I was a sportswriter — a chronicler with a courtside (or press box) seat to an intriguing sports era.
A time when sports television was still in its infancy, when sports salaries weren’t much higher than ours (or rather, yours), and when bad boys’ deeds weren’t revealed by the snitchin’ eyes of social media.
I won’t call them the glory days, but there are a whole lot of folks who traversed that era who are grateful social media was not even close to a thing back then.
Morant’s generation isn’t so fortunate.
Social media’s snitchin’ eyes are everywhere now. Everywhere. Young athletes today have been weaned on it — from the womb (you know mama took selfies) to the doom of some.
After Richardson’s smoking-gun drug test came back positive more than three decades ago, he initially told me he did not use cocaine, that the test was wrong. Grantham knew better. “Ninety percent of the (addiction) disease is denial,’’ Grantham told me back then. “But at some point, the denial breaks down.”
Ja is Michael Ray.
Not exactly, of course, but close.
In March, Morant was suspended eight games after a video surfaced showing him holding a gun while at a club in Denver, where the team was playing. “Irresponsible, reckless and potentially very dangerous,” is how NBA Commissioner Adam Silver then termed the young man’s actions.
Not to mention stunningly tone-deaf in a time when gun violence is public enemy No. 1.
“The NBA does not want to be associated with gun culture,” Grantham said. “Not at a time in sports (with) new sources of revenue, with the rising value the franchises … the last thing they need is an addiction to guns … that is going to portray a predominantly Black league in a negative way. They can’t afford that.”
Back in March, Morant said, “I realize what I have to lose” (a five-year, $194 million contract kicks in this fall, not to mention make-it-rain millions in endorsements). He said he’d strive to be “more responsible, more smarter, and staying away from all bad decisions.”
Not so much, it appears.
On Sunday, Memphis swiftly booted Morant from all team activities; the NBA, of course, is doing its investigative thing.
On Tuesday evening, just prior to the NBA’s 2023 draft lottery — congratulations, San Antonio — Silver talked candidly on a television interview about his March meeting with Morant:
“We spoke for a long time about not just the consequences that could have on his career, but the safety issues around it,” he said. “He could have injured, maimed, killed himself, someone else with an act like that.
“Also, the acknowledgment that he’s a star. He has an incredibly huge following. My concern, and I thought he shared it with me, was that millions if not tens of millions of kids globally see him as having done something that was celebrating … using a firearm in that fashion.
“So honestly, I was shocked when I saw this weekend that video now. We’re in the process of investigating it.”
Late Tuesday, Morant finally spoke out, sharing these words through his agent. “I know I’ve disappointed a lot of people who have supported me. This is a journey and I recognize there is more work to do.
“My words may not mean much right now, but I take full accountability for my actions. I’m committed to continuing the work right now.”
I don’t relish being cynical, but, no, young man, those words don’t mean much right now. Not much at all.
Don’t tell me, show me, is one of my long-held mantras.
What you’ve shown us thus far, young man, is this: The gun culture embraced not just by you but by far too many of our young Black men is far more important than the opportunity you have to create generational wealth for your family, to lift so many other families, too, and to inspire yet another generation to do the same.
Who are you inspiring? Inspiring to do what?
At what cost?
Roy Johnson is a columnist for al.com.
