Amick: All Ja Morant had to do was learn from his suspension. He didn’t. Now what?

Just three weeks ago, as Ja Morant’s Grizzlies were battling the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs, retired NBA player Gilbert Arenas was asked yet again to help the rest of us understand the mentality of the Memphis star whose March 6 gun scandal had stained his reputation and threatened his career. “He’s lucky,” Arenas said of Morant during a podcast visit on the I Am Athlete media network, “because he didn’t have to sit out a whole time — and he’s healthy. But now that it’s happened again, with Morant making that unfathomable choice on IG Live on Saturday while riding alongside his close friend, Davonte Pack, his luck has almost certainly run out. As recently as last month — long after the “it’s free to see how hollows feel” tweet and the accusations about Morant beating up a teenager after a pick-up game at his house, threatening a shoe salesman at a local mall and taking part in an alleged confrontation with a high school student — a Grizzlies official continued to downplay the severity of the Jan. 29 incident involving the Pacers in ongoing conversations with The Athletic about the Morant situation.