Ja Morant is very creative on the basketball court, but there's reason to believe he's even more creative off it. Morant debuted a new three-point celebration two nights ago which sure looked like someone pretending to throw a grenade. Since this came days after the NBA fined him for a finger gun celebration that he continued to do after they told him to stop, well, it kind of made sense.
Morant was asked about the celebration by Grind City Media's Michael Wallace, who appeared on The Gary Parrish Show on Thursday. According to Wallace, in Morant's words, he's "just being Ja." Wallace said that Morant told him, "I made a decision with everything that has gone on. Everything that I've gone through, to be myself first and foremost. And then secondly, to block out the noise."
And by block out the noise he means...
"So later on," Wallace continued, "when he described what the new sort of celebration is, and I know he understood that the other gesture landed him in hot water again and you know, from the league's perspective, they warned him about that kind of thing. So now he said, 'Listen, this is what I'm going to do,' and these are in Ja's words, ‘Listen, it's not what you think it is. I'm taking my words, and I'm throwing them out there."
Wallace continued to relay Morant's explanation saying, "'I'm speaking Ja. I'm being Ja. I'm going to take my words, I'm going to throw them out there, and then I'm going to block out the noise. And that's what I'm doing. So when you see me do that, that's what I'm doing. I'm saying what I got to say to the world, and I'm blocking out the noise in the midst of what's coming back my way. And that's how it's going to be.'"
Wallace then explained that he laughed at this explanation, but Morant seemed serious. After hearing that you would think he could have come up with a better backstory for the finger guns.
And since the NBA didn't say anything about grenades or throwing out your words and immediately blocking out the noise, Morant continued with the celebration against the Minnesota Timberwolves on TNT on Thursday night.
gotta love it pic.twitter.com/WfWmPlQtNN
— eric (@EricTweetsNBA) April 11, 2025
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Ja Morant Insists New Celebration Isn’t Grenade Throw, Offers Hilarious Explanation.
