While making an appearance at a youth basketball camp, Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant shared a powerful message to the young basketball players who were in attendance.
In a video Morant shared on Instagram, the Grizzlies star told the kids, “Believe in yourself. Have confidence in yourself. There’s going to be a lot of outside stuff that can distract you from your ultimate goal. Just stay locked in, tune it out, and stay true to yourself.” Of course his message made rounds on social media because Morant has went through the things that he was preaching to the kids. With letting outside directions get him off track, the NBA star took the time to turn those negatives into positives and share advice to the younger generation.
Morant also gave free shoes to all of this kids who were at the camp, which was something they all seemed super excited about. While some of Morant’s bad decisions have created an outside perception of him, he is still making some positive moves to guide the youth in the right direction. Getting an opportunity to do that with this appearance, the Grizzlies star certainly made a strong impact on the kids in attendance.
As we previously reported, Ja Morant has faced backlash two times after flashing a gun on Instagram live. One time it was in a strip club and another time it was while he and his friend were riding in a car.
Morant previously just returned back to the league earlier this year after he was seen holding a gun in a Colorado strip club and apologized for the incident, claiming the person the world saw in the video is not him. “It’s not who I am,” Morant said. “I don’t condone it or any type of violence, but I take full responsibility for my actions. I made a bad mistake. I can see the image that I painted over myself with my recent mistakes. But in the future, I’m going to show everybody who Ja really is, what I’m about and change this narrative that everybody got.”
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Shortly after the incident, Morant entered a counseling program in Florida where he said he worked on techniques to better handle stress, including Reiki and anxiety breathing, reflecting on the position he put himself in. “Honestly, I feel like we put ourselves in that situation with our past mistakes, and now it’s only right that we focus in and lock in on being smarter and more responsible, holding each other accountable for everything,” Morant said of his inner circle.
“I feel like in the past we didn’t know what was at stake. And now finally me having that time to realize everything, have that time alone, I realize that now.
“I realize what I have to lose, and for us as a group, what we have to lose. It’s pretty much just that being more responsible, more smarter and staying away from all the bad decisions.”