The Charlotte Hornets have waived off their 19th pick from the 2021 NBA draft after his behaviour on social media during the entirety of this off-season. He recently made a trade request out in public on his social media. Hence the Hornets were forced to take this drastic step.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Kai Jones shared that he is happy to enter free agency after being waived by the Hornets. He wrote, “I used to pray for times like this.”
According to the NBA rules and regulations, requesting a trade out in the public is a punishable offence and that is exactly what the youngster did on social media a couple of days ago.
“Any player (or, for clarity, any player representative or person acting with authority on behalf of a player) who publicly expresses a desire to be traded to another team shall be subject to a fine and/or a suspension. The maximum fine that may be imposed by the NBA on a player pursuant to the foregoing shall be $150,000.”
Jones had signed a rookie contract of four years $13,421,215. The only good thing in this was that the Hornets would be honouring the entire deal even after being waived off. If not he finds a new team then they will honour the remainder of his salary.
The young center was constantly engaging in trash talks with the fans and was always speaking ill about his teammates to portray himself in good light. He also appeared in an Instagram Live session where fans speculated him to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
He also claimed to a fan that his past performances don’t matter as he has developed himself enough this off-season to be the Most Valuable Player and the Defensive Player of the Year in the upcoming season.
Jones also claimed himself to be better than his former teammates Brandon Miller and LaMelo Ball, who were selected as the No. 3 and No. 2 picks respectively.
When a fan highlighted that his former frontcourt teammates Mark Williams and Nick Richards outperformed him. Jones shared that there are areas in his game that are far superior to the players in question. He said, “Show me a video of Mark pulling up going left and hitting it. Anywhere main in college some where show me one,” Jones said about Williams. “I’m more assertive with the ball than him. I can read myself,” Jones said of Richards.
His problematic social media presence can be a major blow as teams wouldn’t want someone of this sort to join their dressing room. On top of that, he has only averaged 2.7 points per game in his two-year-old NBA career.
