Tony Allen is making it a point to let Ja Morant know he is in his corner. Allen, the Memphis Grizzlies legend who served as one of the pillars of the team’s revered Grit ‘n’ Grind era, went onto Kevin Garnett’s “KG Certified” to have a conversation regarding Morant, who is currently caught up in a new controversy related to his possession of a firearm.
“I reach out to his dad every day,” Allen said of Morant’s father, Tee, per Damichael Cole of the Memphis Commercial Appeal. “I tell him, ‘Hey man, I’m in y’all corner. I’m around. I’m here if you need me.’ I been through some of everything of what he’s trying to portray. It can get rough.”
While Allen is of the belief that “experience is the best teacher” and Morant’s going to learn from all this, he explained to Garnett that, if he got the chance to sit down with the All-Star guard, he wants to have a conversation with Morant about the seriousness of guns.
“You gotta be properly planning in your movements, and when you’re out and about, man, and you definitely think you need a gun or you need places to go that you need a gun, might not need to be going to those places,” he said. “I say that from experience, I’ve done been in a fair share of things myself that I wish I could take back myself.
“He gotta get the right people around him,” Allen went on to say. “I know that sounds cliche, but more so than anything, you need some cats around you that’s gonna let you know when you wrong, when you bogus, when you pretty much need to be a man about certain situations, a grown man at that.”
Earlier this month, Morant waved a gun around while on an Instagram Live that was broadcast by one of his friends. It was the second time Morant has come under scrutiny for brandishing a gun, as he went on a leave of absence that turned into an 8-game suspension following an incident where he brought a gun to a nightclub in Colorado. Reports indicate that Morant could face a lengthy suspension for the most recent incident, and he has currently been suspended from all team activities by the Grizzlies.