Yahoo Sports Daily host Jason Fitz reacts to the Memphis Grizzlies suspending Ja Morant following comments he made about the coaching staff after the Grizzlies’ loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. Watch the full episode of Yahoo Sports Daily on YouTube or YahooSports.TV.
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Video Transcript
John Morant suspended for one game against the Raptors yesterday.
The Grizzlies suspending him for conduct detrimental to the team.
Now, Friday night, after the loss to the Lakers, the coaching staff, uh, they got into John a little bit about his leadership and they, they talked about it in the postgame exchange.
They talked about the leadership needing him to be bigger, needing him to do more.
So when he was asked about it, his response to that was, according to the coaching staff, probably don’t play me, honestly, that’s basically what the message was.
It’s cool.
So all of a sudden what you have is at a microphone.
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Coaches and star players going at each other.
That is never a recipe for a win.
It’s always a recipe for a loss.
The question is, how do you fix this if you’re Memphis moving forward?
Does Memphis need a fresh start away from Ja?
Does John need a fresh start away from Memphis?
Or can a new coaching staff figure out how to get the best out of a superstar player?
He’s a career low in minutes right now.
They’re all still trying to figure out exactly what basketball looks like in this modern iteration of what the Memphis Grizzlies are.
The question is, uh, can you at some point.
Maximized job.
It feels weird to ever think of Jaws just simply not being part of the Memphis Grizzlies.
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And that franchise, I should note loudly, needs people that are destination, that are billboard, that sell tickets that make the franchise interesting, not just nationally, but even locally.
So Jaw is important to the Memphis Grizzlies.
But if you can’t win with him, and if you can’t get everything right, and you end up suspending him, and the relationship becomes fractured, at some point you have to wonder when it will be time for Memphis and Jaw just to mutually decide maybe it’s time to move on.