Ja Morant’s path to what he has become in 3 years into the NBA is quite different from LeBron James’ but the Grizzlies point guard is catching up and is already doing better.
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‘The kid from Akron’ was not only a 5-star recruit and the #1 high school athlete in the nation, but he was also ‘The Chosen One’ to take over Michael Jordan as the GOAT. James directly made it to the league straight out of high school in 2003 as the number 1 pick.
Meanwhile, Morant was only lightly recruited by NCAA Division I programs and unranked by recruiting services. But he did get to Murray State took a risk on him and within two years Ja became one of the top players in the country and put his name forward for the 2019 NBA Draft.
He was taken as a #2 pick by the Memphis Grizzlies. From there on in, the 6’3 guard has been doing things even better than the 6’9 point-forward who hasn’t disappointed in his 19 years NBA career and has been in the conversation to be the GOAT alongside Jordan for the most part of the previous decade.
I’m aware that’s a massive take but Morant has led his team into the Playoffs since his second year in the league, LeBron took a year more to do so. Even if you compare their ages at the time, Ja was still a year younger when he did it.
It also took the future 4x champ 4-years to lead the Cavaliers to a top-3 finish in the league (2nd in the East in 2007), while Morant took the Grizzlies to a 2nd place finish a year earlier. With the 22-year-old already becoming one of the biggest assets for the NBA on the internet, there are speculations of him attaining LeBron James level of brand name very soon.
The brand of Ja Morant in Memphis could become like LeBron James of Cleveland
In the past season, Ja earned his first All-Star and All-NBA selection while leading the Grizzlies to have the second-best record in the NBA and to Western Conference Semi-finals until they met with the now Finalists in Golden State Warriors.
With that, he also did some things on the court that literally broke the internet quite a few times. One of this 3rd-year player’s regular-season game’s highlights reel crossed the NBA record for most views.
The video of Ja Morant’s (@JaMorant) full-court alley-oop buzzer beater has 42.1 million views on Instagram 🤯 https://t.co/gAMWcPR0a7
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) March 3, 2022
That is solid proof of what Alex Hanono of The Marketing Arm, an international marketing agency that has collaborated with corporate brands such as State Farm, Wendy’s, and Snickers, explained in layman’s terms.
“It can be one of those things when LeBron [James] was in Cleveland, and because of that, the opportunities come with the Cavaliers,” Hanono told Commercial Appeal earlier this year. “Obviously, it’s a long way to go, and a lot of victories and success, but if you want to watch it for a long time, so maybe it’s something in the places of Morant and the places of the team.”
