Paul Pierce doesn't get it
Re: Ja Morant - Paul's heart is in the right place but he is missing the point
Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant posted an Instagram Live video showing him at a nightclub holding what appeared to be a firearm.
Ja is away from the team while the NBA is investigating and, of course, sports media has been covering this story for days.
Retired NBA great Paul Pierce tweeted:
“I don’t care what y’all say about Ja. I carried a gun after I was stabbed y’all don’t know what he going thru everyone got something to say until u really know what’s really going on in someone life when u black and rich u a target period.”
Let’s address this in 3 parts.
The stabbing:
In September 2000, Paul Pierce was stabbed 11 times in the face, neck and back while at a private event at a Boston nightclub. Pierce has said that he probably would have died had he been stabbed one inch to the right or left. He was back at practice a few weeks after the stabbing, but he carried a gun for two years and hired 24-hour police surveillance.
We don’t know what Ja is going through:
True. No argument there.
When you’re Black and rich, you’re a target:
True, but how you handle being a target is the difference. Ja wasn’t pulled over while driving and accosted by police for having a licensed firearm. Ja didn’t get into an altercation and pull out a firearm in self defense (at least that wasn’t the case this time, but that was the case in July 2022). Ja was in Colorado for an NBA game…at a club…livestreaming himself on social media…flashing a gun.
The “in Colorado for work” part is important because Section 9 of the CBA prohibits players from carrying firearms while traveling on any NBA-related business:
Whenever a player is physically present at a facility or venue owned, operated, or being used by a Team, the NBA, or any League related entity, and whenever a player is traveling on any NBA-related business, whether on behalf of the player’s Team, the NBA, or any League-related entity, such player shall not possess a firearm of any kind or any other deadly weapon.
Ja’s mistake has nothing to do with “going through something.” His mistake has nothing to do with self-defense.
The league will investigate and possibly hand down a suspension. I’m sure the team will support Ja, but no one is going to give him a pass on this. (Sidenote: there is no reason for people like Skip Bayless to pile on and suggest, without any evidence, that Ja is trying to be gang member).
He broke a league rule. He possibly broke a Colorado law. If Paul doesn’t get that, then he’s missing the point on purpose.