The Memphis Grizzlies have suspended star guard Ja Morant after he was seen flashing a gun in an Instagram Live video (again). In a video that began circulating on social media Saturday night, Morant and a friend are seen in a car listening to rapper NBA YoungBoy. The video briefly shows Morant holding a gun, before the camera quickly pans away.
“We are aware of the social media video involving Ja Morant,” the Grizzlies said in a statement Sunday morning. “He is suspended from all activities pending League review. We have no further comment at this time.”
For its part, the NBA says it is investigating. The league is aware of the video and is “in the process of gathering more information,” NBA spokesperson Mike Bass told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. He emailed a similar statement to the Washington Post.
This is the second time Morant has faced discipline for displaying a firearm. At 5:19 AM on March 4 — hours after the Grizzlies lost to the Denver Nuggets — Morant went live on Instagram. In a video that he appears to have recorded in a strip club, Morant raps along with music in the background. He then holds up a firearm near the side of his head.
The Grizzlies released a statement that day saying that Morant would be away from the team for at least two games. Morant issued his own statement, in which he apologized and said he’d seek help: “I take full responsibility for my actions last night,” he said. “I’m sorry to my family, teammates, coaches, fans, partners, the city of Memphis and the entire organization for letting you down. I’m going to take some time away to get help and work on learning better methods of dealing with stress and my overall well-being.”
Aftermath
Morant left the team to seek treatment at a Florida counseling center, according to ESPN. After leaving the center, he met with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver in New York on March 15. That day, the NBA suspended Morant for eight games without pay for conduct detrimental to the team.
“Ja’s conduct was irresponsible, reckless and potentially very dangerous,” Silver said in a statement. “It also has serious consequences given his enormous following and influence, particularly among young fans who look up to him. He has expressed sincere contrition and remorse for his behavior. Ja has also made it clear to me that he has learned from this incident and that he understands his obligations and responsibility to the Memphis Grizzlies and the broader NBA community extend well beyond his play on the court.”
After leaving treatment, Morant rejoined the team and spoke with the media. He told Yahoo! Sports that the gun wasn’t his, but acknowledged his “mistake” and took responsibility: “The gun wasn’t mine. It’s not who I am, I don’t condone any type of violence, but I take full responsibility for my actions. I made a bad mistake and I can see the image that I painted over myself with my recent mistakes, but in the future, I’m going to show everybody who Ja really is, what I’m about, and change this narrative.”
Just two months later, Morant again finds himself in the center of a media storm that he created. This isn’t the first incident related to his off-the-court behavior. Last summer, the head of security at a Memphis mall accused Morant of threatening him during an altercation in the parking lot, according to a police report obtained by the Washington Post.
Mall Incident
The trouble began when Morant’s mother had a dispute with an employee at a Finish Line store inside the Oak Court Mall in Memphis. (Finish Line sells sports shoes and other athletic apparel.) She called Morant, who reportedly arrived with a group of as many as nine other people.
Morant and his crew were told to leave by the mall’s head of security. They refused. A “verbal confrontation” ensued. Things escalated, and one person in Morant’s group pushed the security guard in the head. “As the group was leaving the premises […] Morant said, ‘Let me find out what time he gets off,’” police wrote in the report. The head of security filed a police report, saying he felt threatened. But police made no arrests.
Four days later, Morant hosted a pickup basketball game at his Memphis home. His parents and sister were there, as was Mike Miller, a former NBA player. Also there was a 17-year-old boy who later told police he considered Morant a mentor. Police records identify the boy, but the Post did not name him because he’s a minor.
The teenager was entranced by Morant and excited to play with him, but things went south when Morant and the teen “checked in” the ball. (In streetball, a player says “check” and passes the ball to the opponent guarding them. As soon as the opponent passes it back, play begins.)
Pickup Basketball
When Morant threw the ball hard at the boy’s chest as he attempted to check it in, the boy threw it back just as hard. The “ball slipped through [Morant’s] hands,” the teenager said, and it hit Morant’s chin. The teenager told police Morant then put his chin on the boy’s shoulder and asked his friend, “Do I do it to him?” The friend responded, “Yeah, do it.”
Morant then punched the boy in his jaw, the boy told police, and without warning, the friend struck him on the other side. “I fell to the ground, trying to cover my face, so I wouldn’t get hit in the face,” the boy told police. “I started getting hit, punched in my head, everything else.”
But even after landing the first punch, Morant and his friend kept hitting the boy as he lay on the ground. “Ja hit me like 12 to 13 times,” the boy said, adding that the friend struck him four or five times. When police asked the boy how hard the punches landed, he compared them to an MMA bout.
After being pulled off the boy, Morant went inside the house, and the boy got up to leave. He told police that as he went to his car, Morant came back outside with a gun tucked into his pants. He said he saw Morant place his hand on the gun.
The boy’s mother filed a police report the day of the incident in July, and she took her son to the hospital the following day. On Aug. 8, nearly two weeks after the fight, Morant and his family filed a report of their own. In their police report, Morant and his family said they believed the teen would come back with a gun and shoot them. In the end, police did not confirm that Morant had a gun, and he wasn’t charged in either incident. It is not yet known whether he will avoid charges in this latest case.