sport news Ja Morant should STOP trying to 'keep it real,' ESPN's Kendrick Perkins insists trends now

Gun-toting Ja Morant needs to stop trying to 'keep it real,' and instead focus on 'hooping,' according to ESPN personality and former NBA center Kendrick Perkins.

'Who are you doing it for?' Perkins asked on Monday's episode of ESPN's First Take. 'Are you doing to get applause?... 'Oh yeah man, you know what, he a real one. He a real one.' Keep it real for who?'

Morant will be away from the Memphis Grizzlies for at least their next two games, the team announced Saturday, not long after the NBA opened an investigation into a social media post by the guard, who livestreamed himself holding what appeared to be a gun at a nightclub. The video was posted by Morant on his Instagram page early Saturday, hours after the Grizzlies played in Denver.

That incident followed a game against the Indiana Pacers; citing unnamed sources, The Indianapolis Star and USA Today reported that multiple members of the Pacers saw a red dot pointed at them, and The Athletic reported that a Pacers security guard believed the laser was attached to a gun.

Furthermore, a recent Washington Post report claims that Morant threatened a mall security guard in Memphis last summer during a parking lot altercation four days before allegedly punching a 17-year-old, retrieving a handgun from his home, and re-emerging with the firearm in his waistband.

The issue, according to Perkins, is that the 23-year-old Morant is trying to impress people who he should be ignoring, given all that he has to lose.

'You work your entire life to get out of a situation that you was in to provide a better life for yourself, to secure your future, to secure your kids' future, your kids' kids' future, to get to this point, not to go back to relating on trying to please others,' said Perkins, a 38-year-old

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