Ja Morant has put himself under an awful spotlight over the last week. He already had several controversial stories come out about him before he then waved a pistol around on Instagram Live. Morant has since been criticized across the sports world, including by Shaquille O’Neal on TNT earlier this week.
Shaq tried to provide perspective for Morant following these incidents. He said he needs to use some better common sense and that, in the end, this falls on him because it was solely his decision to do it.
“It was a bad choice, a bad decision,” started Shaq. “We have to stop putting ourselves in positions to where they can take away what we’ve worked so hard to get to. You should always believe in a higher power. I’ve always had the ability to stop time and say, ‘If I do this, what’s gonna be the outcome?’”
“(Ja Morant) knows what he did was wrong. But remember he put himself in that position. He didn’t have to go live. You gotta pick your phone up, swipe to find Instagram, get on Instagram, swipe again, hit the live button, wait for it to connect. You gotta have enough common sense to know that wasn’t gonna go the way you wanted it to go,” O’Neal said. “When it’s you making the decision, you gotta be smart. And we gotta stop putting ourselves in positions to where they can take it back.”
Ja Morant has established himself as one of the sport’s biggest stars. As an All-Star and All-NBA talent, though, there comes a certain level or responsibility considering his platform.
Again, Shaq only wanted to provide Morant with some advice as far as how to move forward from these incidents. To him, he thinks it starts with better decision-making, especially when it comes to Morant’s inner circle.
“Remember, this is a decision…This is an instance where I pull it out, I hit the button and I wiggle it for everybody to see. So he did it to himself,” Shaq said. “He has to deal with what’s coming. And I know he has a lot of support around him. (But) his friends can’t be yes friends. I love my crew. We fight and argue all the time. But you know what? They keep me in line. My friends keep me in line. They like, ‘You ain’t about that life. You don’t need to be doing that. Forget all that.’”