Stephen A. Smith Revealed The NBA Community's Fear About Ja Morant

As NBA fans wait to hear the outcome of the league's recent investigation into Ja Morant's second Instagram Live, where he's seen flashing a gun, many speculate what could happen next.

ESPN's Stephen A. Smith recently discussed what many fear about the Memphis Grizzlies star during an appearance on "The Rich Eisen Show."

While discussing NBA Commissioner Adam Silver's recent announcement about the investigation into Morant's second gun incident on Instagram Live, Smith shared his thoughts and dropped a scary thought about his future.

"I think Ja Morant's in some trouble. There are certain things that we can speak on, and there are certain things that we can't," he said.

"What we can speak on is the fact that the incidences that he has found himself in; getting into a fight with a high schooler, allegedly coming out of his house with a gun to confront the high schooler, having a friend of his in his company and they had an issue with some Indiana Pacers personnel, and you saw some red laser dot pointing at somebody, there was another incident in the club, there was stuff in the strip club with him waving a gun, and then there's another one where he's on Instagram Live and one of his friends put him on Instagram Live, and again you see him waving a gun and stuff like that."

Smith said Silver feels betrayed, and Morant is lucky that Silver is the current commissioner.

"All I can say to Ja Morant is that he is fortunate that Adam Silver is the commissioner of the NBA and not the late great David Stern, cause had it has been David Stern, it wouldn't have been just an eight-game suspension the first go-round," he continued.

"It would have been much different than that. And had it been David Stern, we might be looking at lawsuits and all of this other stuff because David Stern would have tried to turn around and suspend him for the entire season next year."

Smith then thought about what punishment might be headed Morant's way. He doesn't think it will be an entire or even half a season. Smith thinks 25 games might be a possibility "to send a message to try to provide a deterrent for other players to engage in similar behavior."

He then shifted to discussing the "other things" they couldn't discuss.

"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. And obviously, he feels compelled to have a gun around him pretty much all the time," he said.

"And that brings into question all those things that I just mentioned, that again, I'm not at liberty to speak on, but I can tell you this. I'm from the streets of New York City, and many 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."

Smith continued with some grim thoughts about Morant and why the NBA community is more concerned for the star player off the court than on the court.

"They're concerned about whether or not he's gonna be alive in five years because of the environments that he finds himself around and the situations he finds himself confronted by," Smith said. "It's a serious matter, and it's something that I think that the NBA and everybody that knows anything about the kind of things that are going on with him find themselves concerned about."

Just before Game 1 of the 2023 NBA Finals between the Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat started, Silver spoke about the NBA's recent investigation into Morant's second Instagram Live gun incident.

"In assessing what discipline is appropriate, if that's the case, we look at the history of prior acts and the individual player's history. And the seriousness of the conduct, so those are all the things that get factored in. It's not an exact science. It comes down to judgment at the end of the day on the part of me and my colleagues in the league office," he said to the press.

"In terms of the timing, we've uncovered a fair amount of additional information since I was asked about the situation; I would say we probably could've brought it to a head now, but we made the decision, and I believe the Players Association agrees with us that it would be unfair to these players and these teams in the middle of the series to announce the results of that investigation."

After the second incident in mid-May, Morant has been mostly quiet. He apologized and shared some cryptic, worrisome Instagram Stories that he deleted relatively quickly after posting. Police did a welfare check on the NBA player at his house, and since that time, Morant has been quiet on social media again.