Charles Barkley rants on Ja Morant saga: ‘Some idiots ... on television really just piss (me) off’

Charles Barkley has had it with the Ja Morant and what he calls the idiots, fools and jackasses on television.”

The NBA analyst sounded off Wednesday on TNT during coverage of Game 1 between the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals.

Morant’s latest gun video has dominated the headlines as of late. Barkley pointed out some believe Morant didn’t do anything wrong.

Barkley went after those defending Morant.

“First of all, I have to say something,” Barkley said. “We have some idiots, some fools, some jackasses on television that really just piss me off. Talking about Ja (Morant) should make a stand. That he didn’t break any laws, he didn’t do anything wrong. Those guys are just freaking idiots. I only say freaking because you guys won’t let me say what I want to say. It pisses me off when I hear guys say that.”

The former Auburn star wasn’t finished.

“Young man, when you are making $100 million dollars to play sports your life changes. There are certain rules and regulations that you need to live by, plain and simple. You can’t do stupid stuff. That is the tradeoff. If you do all that stuff and give all that money back more power to you. You can’t make money in the NBA doing this stuff. I just hope that he grows up and realizes. You are not a thug, you are not a criminal. You make $200 million dollars to dribble a stupid basketball.”

Morant spoke out Tuesday night about his latest troubles, three days after the Memphis guard apparently held a firearm again while being broadcast on social media and was suspended by the Grizzlies from all team activities.

He’s also being investigated by the NBA for his actions, two months after the league suspended him for essentially the same thing — displaying a gun on social media.

“I know I’ve disappointed a lot of people who have supported me,” Morant said in a statement released Tuesday night by his representatives. “This is a journey and I recognize there is more work to do. My words may not mean much right now, but I take full accountability for my actions. I’m committed to continuing to work on myself.”

His comments came a few hours after NBA Commissioner Adam Silver expressed disappointment over the situation. Silver handed down an eight-game suspension in March; there is no way of knowing yet what penalties Morant may face this time.

“Honestly, I was shocked when I saw, this weekend, that video,” Silver said in a televised interview with ESPN before the draft lottery in Chicago. “We’re in the process of investigating it and we’ll figure out exactly what happened as best as we can. The video’s a bit grainy and all that, but I’m assuming the worst. We’ll figure out exactly what happened there.”

The first video, which cost Morant about $669,000 in forfeited salary, came out in March. The second was captured Saturday night and widely shared online. It was streamed on the Instagram account of Morant associate Davonte Pack, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because the Grizzlies have not commented on the specifics of the latest video.

The video streamed by Pack shows Morant briefly appearing to display a handgun. At the very brief moment — maybe less than a second — when Morant is shown holding what appears to be a weapon as he sits in the passenger seat of a vehicle, the livestream had 111 viewers.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.