Michael Wilbon won’t be getting the Ja 1 sneakers for his son anytime soon.
The “Pardon the Interruption” star and ESPN NBA analyst said Sunday on “NBA Countdown” that his son, Matthew, is not allowed to buy Ja Morant’s new signature Nike shoe after another video emerged over the weekend of the Grizzlies guard holding what appeared to be a gun in a car while being filmed on Instagram Live.
The video comes more than two months after Morant, 23, filmed himself on Instagram Live holding a gun inside the Shotgun Willie’s strip club in Glendale, Colo. on March 4, which got him suspended eight games.
“This is up to Ja. This is up to him,” Wilbon said during a discussion with Stephen A. Smith, Jalen Rose and Mike Greenberg. “He’s old enough now – he’s not the normal 23, 24-year-old. He’s not. … There are people who could be around him who are gonna have to help lead him out of this. We hear about four or five days, or eight days or whatever at some facility in Florida, that’s a joke. That’s PR. And so you could try to PR your way out of this through other social media forms and all of that. But the question is, is he gonna do the work that is required of himself to get out of this and for this not to be the end?
“Because what’s gonna happen now? Nike gonna pull that shoe? Is Powerade gonna pull that drink? I know in my house, I told Matthew, ‘You can’t have the shoe. I’m not buying that shoe. You’re not buying that shoe. Our money as a family is not going toward that.’ And so I’m not the only one who’s gonna feel that way.”
Morant’s first shoe with Nike, the Ja 1, was released last month.
A new version of the shoe, the Ja 1 “Hunger,” is currently set to be released on May 25.
When Morant said he was stepping away from the team after the March 4 video to get help dealing with stress, Nike stood by him.
“We appreciate Ja’s accountability and that he is taking the time to get the help he needs,” Nike said in a statement at the time. “We support his prioritization of his well-being.”
Nike had not commented on the latest Morant video as of Monday morning.
Wilbon said he’s “fascinated” with Morant.
“He’s so smart; we talk about intelligence, you listen to Ja Morant postgame, I mean, the engagement level and the intellect are unmistakable,” Wilbon said. “But yet, this whole fake gangster theme that I thought we were past as a culture some years ago — I guess he’s not past it, he and his. And it’s just, it’s sad. It’s sad. It saddens me that this kid cannot get through this stage and see his way through a brighter time. And like Jalen, I’m hopeful it’s gonna happen, but who’s gonna help lead him? Who’s gonna help get him there?”
After the new video began spreading on social media Sunday morning, the Grizzlies announced they suspended Morant from all team activities, and the NBA is investigating the video.
Adrian Wojnarowski said on “Countdown” that Morant could be facing a “lengthy suspension” from the NBA for the start of the 2023-24 season, and Rose speculated that it could be a 20-25-game ban.
When Morant sat down with Rose, who writes the Renaissance Man column for The Post, on March 15, the guard said he doesn’t “condone any type of violence” and said he was “gonna show everybody who Ja really is.”