My take on the Ja Morant troubles is the same as a lot of my friends' takes:
* He needs better people around him, to advise him to make much better choices
* He has a much greater chance of becoming a victim, than being an aggressor.
As a Black athlete, if you make poor choices in legitimate conflict situations, you will be perceived as the villain, regardless of any preceding provocations.
No one will remember that a 17 year old neighbor was a guest in Ja's house, getting to play pickup basketball with an NBA all star. No one will care that this 17 year old got angry first, and intentionally threw the ball full force in Ja's face, striking him, or that the 17 year old threatened to come back and "Light the place up."
All they'll remember is "Ja hit a teen!" And "Ja pulled a gun on him!"
It doesn't matter if Ja never pulled his gun out, and showed it in response to a threat.
Throwing a basketball full force in someone's face is assault. Threatening to come back and light their house up is a terroristic threat.
Standing on your own property with a legally registered handgun tucked into your waistband, is actually legal. Because 'Murica. 🤷🏿♂️
The police investigated the incident, and dropped the whole thing, because Ja had not committed a prosecutable crime.
But that doesn't mean that this was the best way to handle the situation.
Now Ja has been suspended for showing a handgun on Instagram live while he streamed from a night club.
Why did he even have a gun in a club? Registered or not? If you look at the screenshots, you'll see that he has over $100K of jewelry around his neck.
Chains are a big flex! But when you flex you're flexing on someone. Some people don't like that. Chains get snatched. People get killed for chains.
You wear a chunky chain to the club, but then you need to take a gun to protect your chain?
Safely wearing big ice to the club without getting robbed, and without getting in trouble for carrying a gun, is a solved problem. Hire security.
Because the reality is, that handgun is not protecting you nearly as much as you think it is. When violent men that make *extremely* poor life choices come for your chain, that handgun puts you in a life or death situation that you are not trained for.
For a kid that grew up in the suburbs, and is now a megamillionaire, there are much better choices.
@queenofnewyork @mekkaokereke is that like a real statistic or something that you believe from experience? If it's the former, could you provide some references please?
Not trying to bait you into anything, just curious. 😅
@mekkaokereke @jp_is_me The suicide stats in particular make me super sad. My depression is one of the reasons I will never own a gun. I do not trust myself.
Some claim that people intent on suicide will find a way, but that’s also not what the evidence says, from the change to gas ovens reducing suicide to securing bridges from being easily used for jumping. I’d dig out those but probably easier to find. :)
mekka okereke 
Queen of Anxiety
Not quite anonymous