NBA
Ja Morant Trolls Skip Bayless After Returning From Gun-Related Suspension
Tim Crean started writing about sports in 2016 and joined Sportscasting in 2021. He excels with his versatile coverage of the NFL and soccer landscape, as well as his expertise breaking down sports media, which stems from his many years downloading podcasts before they were even cool and countless hours spent listening to Mike & The Mad Dog and The Dan Patrick Show, among other programs. As a longtime self-professed sports junkie who even played DII lacrosse at LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York, Tim loves reading about all the latest sports news every day and considers it a dream to write about sports professionally. He's a lifelong Buffalo Bills fan from Western New York who mistakenly thought, back in the early '90s, that his team would be in the Super Bowl every year. He started following European soccer — with a Manchester City focus — in the early 2000s after spending far too much time playing FIFA. When he's not enjoying a round of golf or coaching youth soccer and flag football, Tim likes reading the work of Bill Simmons, Tony Kornheiser, Chuck Klosterman, and Tom Wolfe.
Get to know Tim Crean betterPublished26 Mar 2023
After Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant went on Instagram Live and flashed a handgun in a club, the NBA suspended the point guard for eight games. While Morant was away, many sports media pundits weighed in on the incident. One of those talking heads was, obviously, Skip Bayless. And when Morant returned, the first thing he did after the Grizzlies win was troll Bayless in the tunnel on the way back to the locker room.
Ja Morant subtly fired back at Skip Bayless
Before the NBA suspended Ja Morant for flashing a gun on social media, the Grizzlies star started a TikTok trend quoting an NBA YoungBoy song, “The Fresh Prince of Utah.” The trend involves shouting the line, “There’s a parade inside my city! Yeah!”
When Morant interrupted a teammate’s postgame interview during his suspension, yelling, “There’s a parade inside my city! Yeah!” Skip Bayless didn’t like it.
The next day on Skip and Shannon: Undisputed, Bayless took Morant to task for touting a song that glorifies gun violence while serving a gun-related suspension.
Bayless said that “in a vacuum,” quoting a rap lyric is “so not a big deal.” However, Bayless noted that he believes Morant is smart but also calculating. In his opinion, the star guard knew precisely what he was doing with those lyrics and winking at his contrition.
In the process of debating whether Morant was serious with his apologies the last few weeks, Bayless kept noting the NBA player would yell this same song lyric. At one point, Bayless read the line in the stodgiest way possible, enunciating every word and putting a strange emphasis on “yeah!”
On March 22, Ja Morant returned from his suspension and played 23 minutes in a 130-125 win over the Houston Rockets. The two-time All-Star scored 17 points and added five assists.
While leaving the game up the tunnel, cameras caught Morant seemingly trolling Skip Bayless. Ja yelled his now-trademark phrase, adding the same nasally emphasis as a certain hot take artist did on his talk show.
Over the weekend that ensued, Bayless didn’t react specifically to the now-viral video on social media, but there’s a good chance he responds on Monday’s Undisputed.
