NBA Veteran Patrick Beverly has blamed bad parenting and rap music for the off-field erratic behavior of the Grizzlies star Ja Morant.
Morant has courted widespread condemnation and criticism after a series of unsavory actions, which includes reportedly punching a teenager in the face and posting a video of him on Instagram Live flexing a gun in a strip club after a game against the Denver Nuggets.
He later issued an apology. “I take full responsibility for my actions last night,” Morant said.
“I’m sorry to my family, teammates, coaches, fans, partners, the city of Memphis, and the entire Grizzlies organization for letting you down. I’m going to take some time away to get help and work on learning better methods of dealing with stress and my overall well-being.”
Morant is currently off the court and undergoing counseling.
Now the NBA veteran Chicago Bulls player Patrick Beverly has weighed on the discussion. Asked what he thought was the reason for Morant’s behavior, Beverly shot back: “Lost his mind..parenting, parenting.”
“I think music has a lot to do with this now. You know, especially with this culture. Everyone holding a gun in the video is okay. You know, bling on your teeth is okay. Pants half down your ass, that’s okay. So, that’s like okay now. Back in the day there was a motherf*cker on the beach in a silk shirt talking about some ‘Yeah, baby, let’s party like we’re in the 80s.’ Everybody had on sick shirts and everybody was dressed the same. “It’s just a product of what we listen to. The culture now is ‘shoot them up, bang, bang, shoot them up, bend you over, I got this amount of money, I’m on private jets, that that that.’ That’s what the younger generation is. Sadly to say it shouldn’t be based on our music, but it is mostly based on what we listen to and that’s how it is.”