We know the problem.

“What I mean by that is, if you and I are sitting in a room and (he) comes in for a half hour and sits down with us, he would fit in perfectly. But then he can walk right out of that door and get in a vehicle with two guys he has no business being around, he can fall right into that trap and fit in. Whoever he’s with, he can assume that identity.”

Herrington: Morant’s coming back. Let’s hope he’s ready.

We’ve seen it coming.

“He was also enamored with kind of this gangster life. He wanted to be seen that way.”

There was a sucker punch on the basketball court. There was crew foolishness cruising around town. Allegedly, there were guns in his house, and in a nightclub. Definitely, there was stupidity.

“Those are the kinds of things that might have been OK among his circle of friends. They really didn’t know better, and in some cases, they knew better and didn’t care.”

You can’t hide. You can’t be anonymous. You can’t get away with stupidity.

Ja Morant expresses remorse in ESPN interview, return plans in place

“You live in a glass house. As a basketball player in this community, there’s nowhere that you can go that’s unnoticed.”

All of that is true about our beloved superstar. All of that has been influenced by who he calls friends, and by who hangs with him as long as they possibly can, like people following somebody with money falling out of his pockets, side-by-side with fame and the famous.

The beloved superstar and the subject of all those quotes is Zach Randolph. All of that is true, long before it was true about Ja Morant.

That first quote was from Portland Trail Blazer management, somebody named Brunner, from a 2012 article by writer Jonathan Abrams in Grantland, a publication from Grant County, Indiana, where Zach grew up. I couldn’t track down the full attribution but it’s too good to let go.

The second and third quotes are from Jason Quick, a Trail Blazer beat writer for The Oregonian, and the fourth quote is from Darnell Valentine who was both a Blazer player before Zach, and then director of player programs when Zach was there.

Ja Morant suspended eight games by NBA, can return to team March 20

When Zach was in Portland, the Trail Blazers had a nickname, “The Jail Blazers.”

Quick reported, “There was one year where the longest stretch where a player wasn’t arrested, suspended by the league, by the team, or the police weren’t called to their home was 17 days,”

Zach never went to jail, but he stood up for his brother when he was one of three involved in a nightclub shooting. Zach was never accused of gun crime in Portland, but neighbors reported gunshots coming from his house when he was on a road trip. Zach was never charged with possession of drugs in Portland, but members of his crew were while driving his car.

Zach himself was charged with unlawful possession of firearms while a juvenile in his hometown of Marion, Indiana. He did have a DUI in Portland, and the recipient of his basketball court sucker punch that I referenced was Blazer teammate Ruben Patterson during practice.

Zach broke his eye socket.

Conaway: Tennessee to reserve all federal funds for evangelicals

Patterson, once accused of trying to rape his child’s babysitter, probably deserved it. Nevertheless, Z-Bo hid in a friend’s house for several days fearing that Patterson would try to shoot him.

When he came here, there were those who thought the Grizzlies had made a mistake. There were those who thought we had invited trouble and a project into our midst, not just the player, but the player’s history and the player’s crew. On top of that, he couldn’t outrun, well, anybody, and he had the vertical leap of a cement truck and the apparent mindset of Mike Tyson.

I was one of those. I was very wrong.

As the ad agency for the Grizzlies when they arrived and a fan ever since, I’ve met a lot of the players. Two of them stand out as the nicest and most approachable, Shane Battier and Zach Randolph.

Of the two, Z-Bo had the most pronounced split personality. On the court, he was very close to an actual Grizzly, ferocious and dangerous and hungry. Off the court, he was an absolute teddy bear, and the best professional athlete I’ve ever seen with children.

Conaway: The Word. And waffles.

One of those was an eight-year-old named Charles Rowland, such a fan of Z-Bo that he started calling himself C-Bo. I called in a favor and C-Bo got to meet Z-Bo during a practice session. Zach made Charles feel like they were the only ones in that gym, turning into a 6’9” kid.

Charles' dad, Michael, wrote me a note after that and I made it a column. Here’s a part of his note:

“For me, a 6’9”, 260 lb. Black power forward named Zach with a wicked inside game who goes by the moniker of Z-Bo, and a 3’9”, 46 lb. white kid named Charles with cerebral palsy who goes by the nickname C-Bo lend proof that this city is about something special.

“Randolph arrived here after playing for three other teams, had a trunk full of baggage, and was not generally given much chance to do well, much less lead the Grizz into the rarified air of the NBA playoffs. Charles arrived here three months early, had a hospital full of problems, and was not generally given a chance to survive, much less thrive and watch his hero drive the Grizz deep into the NBA playoffs.

“Both have made the most of their second chance in the Bluff City.”

Conaway: Why does Memphis try so hard to be Philadelphia?

That was in 2013. Z-Bo has since retired and made Memphis his adopted city. C-Bo was named an Eagle Scout a couple of weeks ago.

Michael ran into Z-Bo in the baggage claim at our airport recently and said hello. He told me that Z-Bo claimed to remember C-Bo well, although Michael thinks he was just being nice, and he’s very good at being nice. As Michael waited for his bag, Z-Bo was recognized by others and approached. He spoke to all of them individually, signing autographs and telling stories.

He stayed until everybody turned to claim bags, until everybody would now claim a famous friend.

This is a role model. For pro athletes. For reformed behavior. For leading your life, not the life of others. For making good decisions, not being a part of the bad decisions of others. For being responsible for your actions, not responsible for the actions of others. For understanding the difference between friendship and dependency.

Few of us, and certainly not this writer, can truly know the gift of immense talent and the impact of fame and mountains of money at age 23. Unlike Zach, Ja has a father, but he may be part of the problem instead of the solution, and seems to be relishing the fame of his son and basking in that light. Ja needs his father to be his father. He has plenty of friends.

Conaway: The Earthquake Open and having fun saving Memphis things

Like Zach before him, Ja has people around him who are there in their own best interest.

There was another Memphian just like that, a singular talent, starving himself from real love while feeding everyone around him, being robbed of both money and spirit, until he retreated from the real world in a cloud of drugs and died tragically and relatively young.

His name was Elvis.

According to the team, Ja is getting help, and I’m sure that’s true. However, whatever help that may be, however many people are involved, and whatever time is allocated, I have a humble suggestion.

Call Zach, and put Zach and Ja in a couple of comfortable chairs and leave the room. I think they can work this out.

I’m a Memphian, and I think that would be a slam dunk.