Ja Morant has quoted some NBA YoungBoy lyrics during his return to the sidelines for the Memphis Grizzlies following an eight-game suspension.
On Monday night (March 20), the NBA star crashed Santi Aldama’s postgame interview following the team’s win over the Dallas Mavericks, which saw the embattled superstar guard shouting bars from YB’s 2022 track, “Fresh Prince of Utah.”
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“It’s a parade inside my city, yeah,” Morant shouted while his teammate joined him in repeating the bars. Aldama finished with 22 points and 14 rebounds in helping lead the Grizz to a 112-108 victory over the Mavs.
Check out his postgame interview below:
YOU ALREADY KNOW 🗣🗣🗣@JaMorant | @santialdamapic.twitter.com/G2rNrxAxQs
— Bally Sports: Grizzlies (@GrizzOnBally) March 21, 2023
However, some sports pundits such as Skip Bayless took offense to Morant using NBA YoungBoy lyrics and saw it as a lack of maturity as he returns to the court after flashing a gun on Instagram Live earlier this month.
“If I just take quoting a rap lyric in a vacuum, it’s like so not a big deal that it’s laughable that we’re even discussing it,” Bayless said to Undisputed co-host Shannon Sharpe. “But we can’t, when it comes to Ja, take it completely out of the context of what he just went through. So, I’ll just say this, it was not a good sign that he quoted that rap lyric.
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“Ja jumps right in the middle of it because he can’t restrain himself. And he quotes a rap lyric, ‘It’s a parade inside my city, yeah!’ And it’s just straight jubilation … The problem is that line comes from a song that’s just rife with gun violence, well a lot of rap lyrics have [gun violence].”
Skip continued: “But then, said rapper, if you go back and look at his recent past, he’s been in jail several times for robbery and attempted murder and all kinds of assault charges, so he fits the part of the song, he’s actually playing the role of the song. It’s not the best look to quote that rap lyric just as you’re coming back from dangling a gun. In a vacuum, it’s the smallest deal. In context, it’s a reasonably big deal, to me.”
“Fresh Prince of Utah” landed on NBA YoungBoy’s 2022 Realer 2 mixtape, which arrived last September and peaked at No. 71 on the Billboard 200.
The Grizzlies originally sent Morant away from the team after he was seen brandishing a weapon on Instagram live at a Colorado strip club following a loss to the Denver Nuggets on March 3. In his time away from the organization, Morant checked into a Florida counseling program for a brief stint.
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Now, Morant is expected to make his long-awaited return to the court on Wednesday night (March 22) when the Grizzlies take on the Houston Rockets.
