Ja Morant’s hand grenade celebration didn’t sit nicely with Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith in the course of the Grizzles-Timberwolves sport Thursday.
The Memphis guard adopted the on-court gesture after he was fined $75,000 by the NBA final Friday for his earlier finger weapons celebration.
After hitting a 3-pointer in first quarter, Morant celebrated by gesturing a grenade toss and mimicked the method of pulling a pin from an explosive weapon earlier than whereas wanting up on the crowd at FedExForum in Memphis in the course of the 141-125 loss to the Timberwolves.
Whereas discussing the sport throughout TNT’s “Inside the NBA” halftime present, Barkley appeared disgusted whereas Smith despatched a message to 25-year-old Morant.
“He has a history that maybe he shouldn’t be doing … leave the celebrations where people might die alone,” Smith mentioned, referring to Morant being suspended twice for brandishing firearms in social media movies.
Barkley introduced up former Memphis coach Taylor Jenkins, who was shockingly fired final month, simply 9 video games earlier than the playoffs have been set to start.
“I know one person’s happy right now … Taylor Jenkins ain’t got to deal with this crap,” Barkley mentioned.
Jenkins, who signed a multi-year extension with Memphis in 2022, had been with the crew since 2019 and was the Grizzlies’ winningest coach.
“He knows what he’s doing, because y’all gonna keep talking about it,” Shaquille O’Neal added. “Pull that pin.”
Morant, who’s Memphis’ main scorer, coated his ears after pretending to toss it.
“That’s my celebration now until somebody else has a problem with it, and I’ll find another one,” Morant mentioned after Thursday’s shootaround.
Morant debuted his grenade celebration in the course of the Grizzles’ 124-100 win over the Hornets on Tuesday.
The 2-time All-Star made headlines after he mimicked an imaginary gun after making 3-pointers throughout contests in opposition to the Warmth and Warriors.
Morant was fined for repeating the gesture after he obtained a warning from the league, which referred to as it “inappropriate” and “a gesture that could be interpreted in a negative light.”
Morant isn’t the one NBA participant that used finger gun celebrations, although.
In 2023, Morant was suspended twice for 2 separate incidents with precise weapons.
The primary penalty was an eight-game ban for showing in a reside stream video by which he displayed a firearm whereas in intoxicated at a Denver-area nightclub.
The second was a 25-game ban after Morant posed with a firearm in a automobile throughout one other reside stream video.
A Western Convention showdown between the No. 7 Grizzlies (47-33) and the No. 4 Nuggets (48-32), who fired their head coach Michael Malone this week, is happening Friday in Denver.
Each groups are combating for playoffs positions, with six groups having between 31-33 losses.
