Shannon Sharpe Rips Grizzlies Star About Alleged Incident With Pacers: ‘I Wish Ja Would Realize He’s Not A Thug’

Fox Sports host Shannon Sharpe blasted Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant after an alleged incident involving staff members of the Indiana Pacers.

After a game against the Pacers on January 29th, Morant and members of his entourage reportedly drove a car up to a loading dock at FedEx Forum in Memphis to intimidate members of the Pacers staff, according to The Athletic. A red laser was reportedly pointed at the staff from the car. On Sunday, The Athletic also reported that the NBA opened up an investigation into the incident. One member of the Pacers’ security team reportedly said, “that’s 100 percent a gun.”

Sharpe was on his Fox Sports show, Undisputed, and tore into the Grizzlies star for reportedly being in the car when the alleged incident occurred.

“I wish Ja would realize he’s not a thug,” Sharpe said. “Ja is a really good basketball player. Ja did everything he could to lift himself and his family out of this type of environment and to get away from this, and for some reason, he wants to surround himself with these types of people — why?”

Sharpe, who got into an altercation with Morant’s father, Tee Morant, at a Los Angeles Lakers game in January, did not hold back on the 23-year-old superstar.

“Bruh, you not hard!” Sharpe said. “That’s not your life! People in that life would give anything to be in your life! For some reason, you got a $200 million contract, and you want people in the NBA to think you hood. To think you gangster because you roll with these types of people. Bruh, you putting yourself in harm’s way when you don’t have to!”

“Nobody looks at you, Ja, and thinks, ‘man, that’s a thug; he hood. He down, he ’bout that.’ You not! Stop pretending! All you do is yap and talk about, ‘oh, I’m going to let him live and see another day; I’m going to do this.’ You not gonna do nothing! What you gon’ do is get yourself in trouble. Put yourself and your family in harm’s way when you don’t have to!”

The Undisputed host continued his obliteration of Morant and reminded him that there were probably players who the 23-year-old grew up with that chose another path instead of basketball.

“Bruh, you need to let that go,” Sharpe said. “‘Cause that’s not you. It’s not; you pretend like you hard, but you not, Ja. You opening yourself up; you’re putting yourself in a position you don’t even need to be in. And for what? For street cred?”

Mike Bass, a spokesman for the NBA, told The Athletic:

NBA security and league investigators conducted an investigation interviewing numerous eyewitness and reviewing video surveillance following the allegations made by the Indiana Pacers organization regarding a postgame incident on Jan. 29. While we sustained that a postgame situation arose that was confrontational, based on interviews and other evidence gathered, we could not corroborate that any individual threatened others with a weapon.

On Sunday, Morant responded on Twitter to The Athletic‘s report about the alleged incident. He wrote:

did a investigation seen they were cappin. still let a article come out to paint this negative image on me & my fam. & banned my brother from home games for a year. unbelievable

Watch above via Fox Sports 1.

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