UPDATE (12:40 p.m. ET): TMZ Sports reported Wednesday local law enforcement did a welfare check on Ja Morant following his social media post, according to a spokesperson from the Shelby County Sheriff's Office. Morant is "taking a break from social media" and is "fine," according to the report.
ORIGINAL STORY: Ja Morant is clearly going through it right now.
The Memphis Grizzlies star is looking at another suspension after he was seen in a recent video appearing to wave a gun while sitting in a car. Morant served an eight-game suspension in March after a separate video showed him with a gun in a club, and the Grizzlies suspended him from all team activities as he awaits NBA discipline for the second offense.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver recently expressed shock over the most recent video, and that led Morant to issue a statement taking responsibility for his actions, pledging to work on himself. The 23-year-old clearly is at some sort of a crossroads not just in his career but in life, too. Concern for the Grizzlies guard went to another level Wednesday following a series of posts on his Instagram page.
Morant posted four concerning Instagram posts Wednesday morning. The first was a photo of Morant and his mother, captioned "love ya ma." The second was a similar post with his father with the same message. A third, dedicated to his daughter, read "you da greatest babygirl … love ya."
Those all preceded a final story that showed Morant doing a postgame TV interview with a caption that simply read "bye."
Morant eventually deleted all but the "bye" story.
Obviously, it's hard to say for sure without actually hearing from Morant what exactly the posts mean. They can be interpreted in a variety of ways, but there were plenty of fans who reacted with concerned tweets of their own.
Shannon Sharpe and Skip Bayless reacted to the posts in a segment on their FS1 show "Undisputed" on Wednesday morning.
"In this age, day and time where we are right now, we take this thing serious. This is not a 'What does he mean by this? What does he mean by that?' You just go reach out to the young man and you say 'OK, what's going on, Ja?'" Sharpe said. "Hopefully this time around he goes, he gets the counseling, he gets the help, the attention he needs and he stays.
" … Sometimes, the best thing to do is to take time away from that to make sure you have a safe return to said sport," Sharpe added. "I think Ja needs to take this time for himself, think about what it is he wants his NBA career to be and how he wants to be remembered. Because right now, history is not looking at him favorably."
At the very least, it seems like a cry for help from the two-time All-Star.
