Him critique his son is how he raised him. But when they loose, pops teaches his son to lose with class
RIGHT....Played right along Ray Allen at Hillcrest in Sumter, SC
Ja’s father is his biggest hater, but that’s just how he supports his son
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Ja first revealed that his father was his biggest hater before the NBA draft. At the time, sections of NBA fans had publicly doubted Morant, despite his record-breaking college basketball stint.
“I love negative energy,”
Ja told reporters. “It motivates me. It really doesn’t bother me because my dad was my first hater, so if I can take it from him and I can take it from anybody.’
Morant started training with Tee when he was a little boy. In high school, Ja would practice with his coach, Dwayne Edwards, and train some more with his dad when he got home. Edwards told
Murray State News that Ja’s work ethic marked him out from other players:
“Ja would practice with me, then he’d go home and practice with his daddy after practice. We’d finish up, then he’d go to the backyard with his daddy and shoot some more.”
Ja would practice even when it seemed improbable that he would get to the NBA. Tee motivated Ja by telling him that ‘cream would always rise to the top.’ Meanwhile, Jamie reminded Ja that he was ‘beneath no one,’ a phrase Morant tattooed on his left arm.
Tee’s defensive prowess helped mold Ja into a fearsome attacking point guard. Tee used to dominate Ja, but after Ja grew taller, the tables turned. “He won’t play me no more,” Ja said on
The Pardon My Take Podcast. “Once I got a little taller and more athletic, he would never play me 1-on-1. He ran from the smoke.”
Ja still seeks advice from his father when he has issues with a game. Tee told
The Athletic: “When he gets back to the room, he’ll probably ask me what he did wrong. He’s a self-critic, but he calls me his first hater — which I am. I still hate on him.”
“You still suck,” Tee told Morant after winning Rookie of the Year. Ja
said on Pardon My Take that Tee’s message probably wouldn’t change if Ja won the NBA: “He probably would be hype, and then he would be like, ‘You still suck, but congrats.’”
Ja has expressed appreciation for his parent’s efforts by buying them cars.