Stephen A. Smith Reveals NBA Insiders Are Worried Ja Morant Won’t Be Alive in 5 Years

Many people are concerned with the well-being of Memphis Grizzlies player Ja Morant, especially after a recently deleted Instagram post. The cryptic message he posted caused Memphis police officers to do a welfare check.

Now, ESPN sportscaster Stephen A. Smith has gone on record saying that people in the NBA are concerned if the young basketball player is “gonna be alive in five years.”

According to OutKick, Smith made the assessment while appearing on The Rich Eisen Show.

“In terms of Ja Morant’s behavior off the court, some of the things he finds himself engaged in, with the company that he keeps, with the establishments that he visits, things of that nature. Obviously, he feels compelled, pretty much all the time, to have a gun around him,” Smith said.

He continued, “A lot of players I know are from the streets, period. And I can tell you that people within the NBA community are not just concerned about Ja Morant playing basketball. They’re concerned about whether or not he’s gonna be alive in five years.”

As NBA fans and outsiders watch events unfold, there is speculation that this time, the punishment for Morant will be a lofty one after he was suspended for eight games this past season after being seen on his Instagram Live brandishing a gun inside a Denver strip club.

He repeated the same act two months later when he was seen on his friend’s Instagram Live, holding a weapon while in the passenger seat of a car.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver revealed last week that the league has already decided the embattled Morant’s future with the NBA. He stated it would be announced after the NBA Finals are over.

Besides the two flashing gun incidents on Instagram Live, he has been involved in several disputes over the past year, including accusations of pulling out a gun on a young teenager playing basketball at his house. That teenager is suing him over the incident.