As NBA stars urge the media to put more respect on their names, Stan Van Gundy doesn’t have too many nice things to say about Ja Morant.
Van Gundy and Brian Anderson were on the call for TNT as the Memphis Grizzlies beat the Miami Heat 110-108 Thursday night. And with Van Gundy never shying away from criticizing a player or official, he put Morant on blast in the first half.
“Ja Morant spending way too much of the night crying, talking about blaming his teammates, blaming the referees” – Stan Van Gundy pic.twitter.com/yuQITLv9WK
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 4, 2025
“Ja Morant spending way too much of the night crying, talking about blaming his teammates, blaming the referees, everything else,” Van Gundy ranted in the first half. “He simply needs to do a better job taking care of the ball and needs to be a lot more efficient.”
For those watching the game Thursday night, there was a theme from Van Gundy. Criticize Morant and question the Grizzlies for firing Taylor Jenkins with less than 15 games remaining in the regular season. In Van Gundy’s defense, the decision to fire Jenkins did stun most of the NBA world. But the former NBA head coach seemed hellbent on defending Jenkins Thursday night.
During his third Jenkins reference of the night, Stan Van Gundy said, “I would really love to know the inside thinking there of Zach Kleiman (Grizzlies president) on that coaching change,” as the camera quickly panned to Morant. For what it’s worth, Morant has maintained that he was not consulted on the decision to fire Jenkins.
But despite all his crying, blaming, and finger-pointing, Ja Morant would get the last laugh, as he went on to efficiently score 30 points in just 32 minutes, none more important than his game-winner at the buzzer.
