The Birth- A black person’s rise to fame from humble beginnings
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Godhood- The point at which this black individual has reached the peak of their career. They are unrivaled and peerless within their profession.
The Crucifixion- The Fall from Godhood. Jesus was once crucified by the Romans, betrayed by his closest ally, and all while his family, loved ones, and followers watched. This black individual will be crucified by White America, feel betrayed by those they once thought loved them unconditionally and have their family, friends, and followers watch as they are publicly condemned.
Introduction- Who is Ja?
On the 10th of August in the infamous summer of 1999, Tee and Jaime Morant would give birth to a baby boy in Dalzell, South Carolina. That baby boy would be named Temetrius Jamel Morant otherwise known today as “Ja”. Dalzell is a small historically black-and-white town in central South Carolina. Although the town is only a little above 3,000 residents Ja Morant is not the only famous person to come from this town. Ja is in good company as the Famous Bucks and Celtics sharpshooter Ray Allen was also born here and who Tee Morant played basketball with in high school.
As Ja began playing basketball, at a young age he often played with older boys and took on the role of the underdog. "beneath no one" is tattooed on his left arm as these are the words of Jamie Morant’s advice to her young son. Ja began his AAU(League for amateurs to play their sport while traveling) career with a small local team the South Carolina Hornets and would later play with Zion Williamson for a summer on the Nike Circuit. Ja would attend Woodcrest high school earning him his school’s all-time leading scorer, with 1,679 points, three-time All-Region MVP, averaged 27 points, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists per game in his last two seasons, and resulted in receiving South Carolina Class 3A All-State honors twice.
Unranked by the major basketball player ranking sites, Ja had very few low and mid-major offers. He was accidentally discovered by assistant coach James Kane of Murray State while getting a snack. He was amazed at our young protagonist's domination during a basketball camp game of 3v3. Kane made a single call to head coach Matt McMahon and the rest is history.
The Birth- Shout Out To Mid-Majors Who Forgot What They Majored
To give some context to the modern basketball world, It’s no longer a game for the kids from the projects and the place where roses grow from the concrete jungle. No, many new faces of basketball come from suburbs outside of big cities like myself or the gated neighbors of Ladera Heights(the black Beverly Hills). Tall light skin boys with beautiful curly hair, light eyes, and yes, of course, the standard blonde white bombshell girlfriend. Why do you ask? Short answer: capitalism. Long answer: basketball is pay to play or even have a shot at the modern NBA. With black people with darker skin, lower incomes, no social capital, and being pushed into small underfunded schools it becomes increasingly harder to find talent in the hood, the projects, or shit even out in rural areas like where Larry Bird or Dennis Rodman hailed from.
Ja Morant is an older variant of an NBA superstar that isn’t around anymore. He grew up in a small, poor country town. He’s a working-class kid from a real black family, he normally wears his hair in twists or dreads. Has tattoos, a young daughter, and is respected by much of the Hip Hop community which is around in the basketball world. He is but a remnant of the NBA before its de-negrofication by white basketball moderates.
Ja impressed many scouts around the NBA after his freshman season. Murray State won their conference championship and made the NCAA Tournament. Despite getting knocked out by West Virginia Ja averaged 12.7 points, 6.3 assists, and 6.5 rebounds a game. Ja, along with 19 other guards were invited to a highly touted Chris Paul basketball camp. This was Ja’s first step into the national basketball spotlight and oh boy did he fucking shine baby. In Ja’s 2nd and final college season averaging 24.5 points, 10 assists, 5.6 rebounds, and 1.8 steals. At this time Ja finally got his big break. That season every game Ja would have clips of his dunks or acrobatic finishes go viral. For Murray State, they had nationally televised games. Murray State again would be champions of the conference and head into the March Madness tournament. This time they would make it out of the first round as an 11th seed vs a 5th-seeded Marquette. Heroically led by Ja, he dropped a triple-double of 17 points, 11 rebounds, and 16 assists in an 83–64 win over Marquette. They would next lose in the second round to a much better 4th-seeded Florida State team 90-62 with a 28-point performance by Ja. Despite a short-lived tournament run Ja broke many records during his college career earning himself a spot as one of the best NBA prospects in the 2019 draft.
Godhood- A Dirty Deep South Star is Born
The Memphis Grizzlies selected Ja Morant with the 2nd overall pick in the 2019 NBA draft after the New Orleans Pelicans drafted his highly anticipated high-major counterpart, Zion Williamson. Ja Morant would be the first mid-major college prospect to be drafted so high in the draft since Michael Olowokandi was drafted out of the University of Pacific by the Los Angeles Clippers with the 1st pick in 1998.
The Grizzlies draft Ja during a rebuild after years of banging on the door to an NBA championship. These playoff runs were spearheaded by the big boy Zach Randolph, the Spaniard Marc Gasol, defensive anchor Tony Allen, and offensive maestro Mike Conley. The best run was in the 2013 NBA playoffs over 10 years ago. They beat the Lob City Clippers in 6 games and proceeded to sweep the previous year’s NBA Western Conference champions in Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook's OKC Thunder. For the first time in franchise history, they made it to the Western Conference Finals. Unfortunately for our underdog heroes, they were demolished by Greg Popovich, Tim Duncan, and their war veteran squad in only 4 games.
Nobody talks about it in the media but it's fortunate for the Grizzlies to have the chance to draft a potential Superstar in Ja Morant. Memphis is a mid to small-market team and more often than not these kinds of sports teams cannot hold onto stars they draft or assign any in free agency. Their hand is always forced to trade their rising superstar in hopes of drafting another who hopes to stay. This Grizzlies team has more than just Ja and they've managed to potentially have other young players grow into stars around Ja.
Ja Morant’s rookie year in 2019-2020 was a success as he went on to win Rookie of the Year, 1st All-Team Rookie, scored the most points out of all rookies with 1,138 (17.8 points per game) while leading in assists with 7.1 per game. His sophomore campaign was only an improvement from the year before leading the Grizzlies to their first playoff appearance in four years. Ja would lead his squad to upset the Utah Jazz in game one but unfortunately would go on to lose the first-round series in five games. In year 3, Ja and his squad continued to make strides. Ja would be picked for his first All-Star game appearance and made an All NBA team. The Grizzlies secured the 2nd overall seed out of 8 teams in the Western Conference. In the first round, they would steamroll past the lackluster young Minnesota Timberwolves in 6 games. During game 3, Ja would have the first triple-double in playoff franchise history. Later on in Game 5, Ja would win the game with a layup at the buzzer and scored 18 of his 30 points in the 4th quarter. Memphis would march on to face the Golden State Warriors and lose in six games. Despite losing in the 2nd round this was a huge season for not only the Grizzlies but for Ja. His plethora of offensive performances recorded his name next to the likes of Kobe Bryant and Lebron James. This playoff run solidified him as one of the best young stars in the NBA. This newfound stardom would bring Ja the media attention he never got back in high school or college and ultimately, is what allowed White America to get their hands on another famous Black American man to make an example out of. Another one of us for them to crucify…
The Crucifixion- Fake Gangsta, Real Consequences
In the year of our lord 2022 July 6th, Ja Morant signed a 5-year extension with the Memphis Grizzlies for $193 with a clause that if he makes an All-NBA team he could make up to $231 million. For the entirety of the 2022-2023 NBA season and playoffs Ja was putting up great numbers until tragedy struck. The first incident was when Ja Morant was accused of punching a 17-year-old boy in September of 2022. This case was later dropped on March 6th by the Glendale, Colorado police department due to a lack of evidence for probable cause. Next was when Indiana Pacers players entered into a confrontation with Tee Morant and Ja Morant’s associates during a game at Memphis FedEx Forum Arena. After the game Morant associates once again confronted the Pacers as they loaded on the team bus. A security guard and f ew players reported that they saw a red dot sight aimed at the bus, making much of the team feel in danger of their lives. Nothing else came out of this incident but the next would hand the nails to Ja’s crucifers.
On March 4th, 2023 Ja Morant The NBA began conducting an investigation into a Instagram live video of JA Morant at a club posted up with a gun. The Grizzlies suspended Ja for the next two games and Ja Morant stated he would leave the team for an indefinite time and enter a therapy program for his stress and anxiety. On March 15 Ja Morant met with NBA commissioner Adam Silver after exiting the therapy program. Silver would suspend Ja for the next 8 games without pay. These missed games meant Ja wouldn't qualify for an All-NBA team. The “gangsta” antics of Ja’s would continue leading to very real and possibly dire consequences for our young star. On May 14th Ja would again be seen with a gun on his friend, Davonte Pack, on Instagram Lives. Ja would later prove his innocence in this case by showing that the gun in the live was merely a lighter. Too little too late, Adam Silver was doubly shocked as he believed the Ja Morant gun drama had reached its end. Fortunately for Ja, Silver gave our protagonist a 25-game suspension for the upcoming season.
This is something That as an NBA fan I was pleased with. Adam Silver as a commissioner does an excellent job of balancing the different factions of the NBA. The fans, owners, players, and in this situation he understood Ja’s situation as a young black man who was just thrust into stardom. 25 games is a light suspension but I believe this will send Ja the message. This also pleases the Grizzlies as Ja is their franchise player. To my delight, the NBA moderates lose out on this suspension. The NBA moderates are people from all parts of the NBA who controlled the NBA during the David Stern era. Many people applaud the former commissioner David Stern for his harshness when it came to players violating NBA guidelines. The problem with this is that it not only does not fix anything but this regime of moderates leads to the “de-negrofication” of the NBA. Forcing “very black”, “hood” and or “ghetto” NBA players to straighten up to these moderate rules. No more dressing like a thug or popping bottles at the club with your homies from your hood. The NBA moderates created a security state to keep these kinds of players in line and thus began promoting the league’s more “desirable” players. Forbes magazine came out quickly after the Ja Morant scandal with an article titled,”Why Doesn’t Adam Silver Get It? Cut Ja Morant From Memphis Grizzlies And NBA For A Long Time. Adin Ross, a young streamer and Internet personality told his viewers,” Lock this fucking thug up! He’s a thug! Lock him up”. Charles Barkley, a hall of fame basketball player known for his infamous comments calls those and myself defending Ja, “jackasses”. To sum this up, the NBA under former commissioner David Stern(may he rest in piss) forced players to act, in the simplest terms, white.
Analysis
Look, I understand that Ja Morant is a young public figure. Many young impressionable kids and teenagers look up to him. We all had our favorite athlete, actor, or singer we had growing up who we would emulate as young people in our everyday lives. But Ja himself is a kid and very different from his other young superstar basketball counterparts. This is his first time having this much money and being in any type of spotlight. Yes, he absolutely needs to do better at keeping good company as he is a professional athlete, he shouldn't be posted up in the club on Instagram live with guns, and certainly should not be fighting anyone, especially a 17-year-old kid. But this is my main gripe with the situation. Across the world of professional sports, this story was made out to be the most heinous one in a long time. Simply because of the attitude of the NBA media and their racist narratives, non-black people see these narratives and run with them. Because when any black person does something, it’s on all of us. If one black person steals, kills, rapes, doesn’t pay taxes, and so on, these things get attributed to all of us as a race. On top of that, there are far worse crimes and violations committed by athletes every year. In January of last year, Manchester United player Mason Greenwood was arrested for domestically assaulting and raping his girlfriend. When training camp started a few weeks ago Greenwood was welcomed back on the pitch by media, teammates, and fans alike. One of the best defensive players in the NFL Nick Bosa “used” to be an avid Trump supporter, would tweet racist comments about Colin Kaepernick and Beyonce, and would like racist and homophobic tweets. Putting it lightly, Bosa has the politics of a Nazi but this is never addressed by the media or the NFL itself. Another example is Deshaun Watson. Although Deshaun is also a dark skin black man the NFL and media ignored his past of being a repeating rapist despite the accounts of over 25 women because he is a man who plays QB. A prized position for White America in sports.
These athletes' actions are far more heinous than anything Morant has done yet still was treated as just a thug despite him still being a young man. Never would the media tell you stories of Ja Morant as a father to his daughter or how much the communities of Memphis and South Carolina love him as a role model. Because this goes against the narrative that someone who looks, acts, and talks like Ja can be both a great athlete and a good human being despite his faults. Faults that Ja himself has acknowledged and has promised to improve on..
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