Adam Silver expects decision on Ja Morant punishment to come after NBA Finals
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver says an announcement regarding Ja Morant’s punishment for flashing a gun on IG Live will come after the NBA Finals, according to ESPN’s Tim McMahon.
Silver revealed the latest on the situation ahead of game one of the NBA Finals between the Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat.
“We’ve uncovered a fair amount of additional information. We probably could have brought it to a head now, but we’ve made the decision that it would be unfair to these players and these teams to announce that decision in the middle of this series,” Silver said, via McMahon.
During the incident last month, Morant was recorded in the passenger seat of a friend’s car listening to NBA YoungBoy when the camera panned on Morant for a split second. That was enough time to make out the outline of a gun. The video was originally posted by @_dtap2 on Instagram.
This was the second time this calendar year that the Memphis Grizzlies star was suspended from all team activities for showboating his firearms.
The first time that Morant has found himself in hot water over waving a gun around on IG Live was back in March. At the time, a video surfaced Morant filmed himself pointing a gun at his camera on Instagram Live in a nightclub in Denver. He ended up stepping away from basketball for a few weeks. Morant also enrolled himself in a Florida counseling program before returning to the court. He was suspended eight games without pay for the incident.
The NBA investigated the situation and could not determine whether or not the gun belonged to the 23-year-old NBA All-Star. Morant denies that it is his. As of this report, there is no connection between the firearm in the nightclub video and the one shown on Saturday’s Instagram Live video.
Everyone thought Morant had learned his lesson after his Denver strip club incident. He seemed to have owned up to his mistakes and made peace with himself over the situation. After being suspended for eight games and seeing a counselor, he returned to the Grizzlies and didn’t miss a beat.
Morant having learned his lesson has turned out to not be the case. Now, the NBA star will be under an even bigger microscope for the foreseeable future. At this point, another more similar violation could see an extended suspension on the table for Morant, or worse.