Credit: Twitter
Memphis Grizzlies lost their fifth road game in the NBA 2022-23 regular season on Tuesday against New Orleans Pelicans. During the Tuesday's game, NBA legend Charles Barkley criticized Grizzlies point guard despite the 23-year-old's staggering performances in eight games so far this season.
The Grizzlies lost 113-102 against the Pelicans and during the halftime of the TNT broadcast, the 11-time NBA All-Star criticized the 2022 Most Improved Player saying that he should "learn to make the players around him better."
Chuck said, "But the next evolution for Ja is, he gotta learn to make the players around him better. When you’re a great player, you can get your shit anytime you want to. But to take that next step…"
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Ja Morant hits back at Charles Barkley
The 23-year-old Memphis point guard scored 36 points and managed eight rebounds, fours assists and three steals and registered 13-27 from the field at the Smoothie King Center. However, Charles Barkley felt the efforts from Ja Morant came short as he needs to make players around him better to become a great player.
Moments after the game, Morant took to his official Twitter handle and retweeted a post mentioning Barkley's criticism and wrote, "Kneepads" to hit back at Charles Barkley.
Notably, Morant missed many games last season due to injury and the Grizzlies managed 20 victories in the 25 games that didn't feature Ja Morant. With the loss, Memphis are dropped to the sixth place in the Western Conference standings while the Pelicans climbed to the seventh spot.
In the NBA 2022-23 regular season, Memphis managed nine victories in 15 games while New Orleans have registered eight victories in 14 games so far.
