This past summer, Kai Jones became popular on social media for all his eccentricities. Jones, who had two forgettable campaigns with the Charlotte Hornets, posted controversial videos on social media, leaving everyone concerned. Clearly, the 22-year-old was facing some mental health issues. However, the Hornets decided to waive him before the 2023-2024 campaign began.
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On the “Vizion Podcast,” which is hosted by one of his high school teammates, Kai Jones revealed the conversations that he had with the franchise’s front office before being waived. Following the demise of his great-grandmother, the organization kept insisting that Jones meet up with a therapist. Even though meeting a therapist wasn’t something that Kai was keen on, he complied with the franchise’s request.
“My great grandma has just passed away, and they (Hornets) were like I hope we’re not bothering you too much. I was going through some things off the floor, like any person is.
“They were like “Man Kai, we told you to get right, we want you to see a therapist “.
This time I’m stubborn, I’m like “Bro, I do not want to see a therapist, I just want to meditate and clear my head to figure it out on my own, you know use my intuition to figure out my own issues. They were like “No, you gotta see a therapist”… I end up going right, I feel like the therapy is not helping,” Jones revealed.
Kai Jones on why he requested a trade:
“They were concerned about my social media, my sleeping patterns. They wanted me to see a therapist. I ended up going and felt like therapy wasn’t helping. Mitch tells me I’m not allowed to do training camp. That was when I’m like I’m off.” pic.twitter.com/fEzS9OplJ5
— Israel (@iohandles) November 23, 2023
Every personnel on the Hornets was concerned with Jones’ behavior on social media. Mitch Kupchak, General Manager, didn’t allow the highflyer to be part of the training camp, nor were the Hornets ready to trade him. Ultimately, the North Carolina side waived the former first-round pick on 11th October, 2023.
Kai Jones had some concerning posts on social media
Kai Jones received a lot of backlash for his social media activities. In these videos and going live on Instagram, Jones was clearly behaving extremely oddly; his speech was slurred, and he certainly had bizarre movements.
However, on the same podcast appearance, Jones cleared the air and revealed why he behaved in a certain way on social media.
“IG is just me trying to give you an insight on how I live. It’s just dancing. I think it’s entertaining. Just try to brighten up some people’s days. Being free is the key in life and I just want to be an example of freedom.”
There were times when Kai spoke about being the GOAT. During this specific incident, Jones claimed he was better than Shaquille O’Neal, Michael Jordan, and LeBron James.
In another instance, a fan revealed screenshots of his chats with Jones. As seen in the embed below, Kai wrote some NSFW messages to a fan who challenged him to a 1v1 matchup for a $200 wager.
Kai Jones DMs with a fan 😭😭😭
(via @OwnHimMarjon) pic.twitter.com/dqOddZ9NxL
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) September 30, 2023
Apart from his off-court antics, Jones is a pretty decent player. There were times when the youngster did show some promise of being a solid role player. It might be wrong to keep him out of the league for his erratic behavior. There are many teams in the association, such as the Portland Trail Blazers, Toronto Raptors, and several others who could benefit from this athletic forward coming off the bench.
