Opinion: Basketball, Guns, I'm Sorry, We're Shocked, and More - What Happens Next?

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The Video surfaced on Instagram last weekend. Ja Morant holding another gun while riding in a car driven by a friend. By Tuesday the NBA commissioner had commented on it - he was shocked. By Tuesday Ja Morant had issued another apology, stating that he knew he had disappointed others. That he was still on a journey and he had more to do to fix himself.

Should we care?

If this wasn’t an NBA star, who recently signed a contract worth upwards of $190 million, would we give it a second look?

If the person we saw in the video was named “Andy” and was sitting in the passenger seat of a 2006 Ford Taurus holding a gun, would Commissioner Silver and a hundred other people be commenting on it?

What elevates Ja Morant’s actions to a much higher level than our friend Andy’s?

And again, why should we care?

Celebrity means something in our society. Basketball and the NBA mean something in our society today as well. It’s a big business with a worldwide image. Its celebrity is growing. Women’s basketball is growing, becoming more popular. Bringing in more people, generating more revenue. Paying out higher salaries. Take a look at where women’s soccer has gone in the US for a look at the potential ahead.

So, what Ja Morant’s video does is threaten the image. Associates basketball and basket players with guns. A subject no one, other than the NRA wants to get involved with. It’s bad for a business to have one of its rising stars caught with a gun in a video posted on social media, receive a costly suspension for it and then have him do it again.

The NBA is in playoff mode right now. Great games on TV with a large viewing audience enjoying the skills and excitement of some of the best athletes on the planet and some of its biggest stars and celebrities. The last thing it needs or wants is distractions. Other NBA players drawing attention away from the TV and onto the tabloids.

Ja Morant is a young man, all of 23. He’s got a lot of growing to do and he knows it. He’s also one in a million who has been given an opportunity to do something that only a handful of people will get a chance to do - play in the NBA.

And he made the same mistake twice.

So, what is the lesson here - other than social media is not your friend?

Guns are not safe. Maybe, but there are a lot of people out there that would disagree with that and have proved it in their own videos that would make Ja Morant’s latest look like a Sunday School lesson on good behavior.

No, it’s more likely to be about business and that historically no one and that really means no one, is bigger than the whole. No one person has the right or the authority to interfere with the flow of commerce and through that the flow of profit.

If one player, Ja Morant, stands to earn almost $200 million over the next few years, what do you imagine the numbers look like for the NBA as a whole? $10 billion? $50 billion?

Ja Morant is only 23. There are thousands of 23-year-old men out there right now making mistakes. Some smaller, some bigger. They’re learning. But for them what’s at stake is the loss of a license. A fiancé breaking it off, or a $2000 bill to repair the neighbor’s fence you drove through.

What makes Ja Morant’s video so important is that it challenges the NBA's right to grow and expand and become even more popular, and thus bring in more revenue over the coming years.

People should be mad at what Mr. Morant is doing. He’s making guns look like fireworks. Making having one, not such a big deal when it is.

It’s just that if it were Andy, our friend in the Ford Taurus, who was carrying it, about 17 people would be interested and all of them would live on the same block as him. Other than that, not so much.

Let’s keep this in perspective.

Basketball, baseball, football, and soccer are huge enterprises. They are not only big businesses they are big entertainment. They are exceptional distractions in a world that gets tedious, painful, and exhausting at times. Viewing is up across the boards because people need it.

They need to root for a team, for a player, for a championship and they are willing to pay for that entertainment - a lot. The NBA knows this, nurtures it, and like a farmer growing a 1300-pound pumpkin for the County Fair, he’s willing to be out there every day watching his patch and making sure no one walks away with his prize-winning gourd.

Now if our friend Andy had the gifts and could dribble and shoot like Ja Morant, he’d be in hot water right now too.