Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant suspended for 25 games
The NBA has suspended Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant 25 games for brandishing a gun in an Instagram Live video last month.
The news was reported by The Athletic’s Shams Charania on Friday.
“We’ve uncovered a fair amount of additional information,” Silver said on June 1 ahead of Game 1. “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.”
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 has since been deleted by the original poster, @_dtap2 on Instagram. Screen grabs have kept the video online and has since made its rounds on social media.
This was the second time in two months that the two-time All-Star found himself in hot water over waving a gun around on Instagram Live. Back in March, 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.
Ja Morant issues statement on 2nd gun incident in as many months
“I know I’ve disappointed a lot of people who have supported me,” Morant said in a statement on May 16. “This is a journey and I recognize there is more work to do. My words may not mean much right now, but I take full accountability for my actions. I’m committed to continuing to work on myself.”
Morant met with Silver before returning from his suspension. Silver told Malika Andrews of ESPN he got the feeling Morant was taking the consequences from the first event “incredibly seriously.”
“We talked directly about the consequences first,” Silver said. “Before we got to a subsequent potential to have done something wrong, we were very focused on the misconduct that was in front of us at the time… Most of our conversation was about how incredibly serious the first incident was of waving a firearm on social media.
“An eight-game suspension was pretty serious. And something that he at least to me seemed to take incredibly seriously… We spoke for a long time about not just the consequences that could have on his career, but the safety issues around it. [He] could have injured, maimed, killed himself [or] someone else with an act like that.
“… I, at least, was left with the sense that he was taking this incredibly seriously, so, honestly, I was shocked.”