Morant, the star Memphis Grizzlies guard, was first suspended in March after he flashed a gun during an Instagram Live video.
Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant, 23, is under scrutiny from the N.B.A. again after he flashed an object that looked like a gun in a carefree manner during an Instagram Live video posted over the weekend.
The video, which appeared to be posted on Saturday, came just over two months after the N.B.A. suspended Morant for displaying a gun in a live Instagram video filmed at a nightclub near Denver. He expressed remorse then, saying that the gun did not belong to him and that he would be better.
On Sunday, the Grizzlies said in a statement that they had suspended Morant from all team activities pending the league’s review of the new video. Memphis was eliminated from the playoffs last month after losing to the Lakers in the first round. Mike Bass, a league spokesman, said the N.B.A. was “aware” of the post and was gathering more information.
In March, the league suspended Morant for eight games after the nightclub video. N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver noted Morant’s “enormous following and influence” in the announcement of that suspension, which classified the gun incident as conduct detrimental to the league. That Instagram Live video was posted early on March 4, when, the N.B.A. said, Morant had been “in an intoxicated state.” Morant soon checked into a facility in Florida for counseling.
“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,” Morant said at the time in a statement, which was posted on Twitter by Tandem, the agency that represents him.
In contrast to Sunday, when the Grizzlies suspended Morant, the team first responded to March’s incident less pointedly, simply saying that Morant would step away from the team. Coach Taylor Jenkins shied away from criticizing Morant when addressing reporters then and offered few details about any conversations he or the team might have had with Morant.
Morant later said going to counseling was his idea.
The nightclub incident was just one in a series of concerning off-court situations for Morant going back to last summer, some of which involved people who said they felt threatened by Morant or his associates, according to reports in The Washington Post and The Athletic.
One incident involved a fight with a 17-year-old, Josh Holloway, whom Morant had invited to his home for a pickup game in July. Holloway has filed a suit against Morant; the police investigated the incident but have not charged Morant. Four days earlier, a mall security employee had accused Morant of threatening him after Morant’s mother, Jamie Morant, had been involved in a disagreement at a shoe store.
TMZ also reported that the police investigated Morant for intimidation after a high school volleyball game in September, when Morant said somebody had insulted his sister. During an interview with ESPN, Morant said he feared for his sister’s safety and left when he knew she was safe.
Before Morant returned to the Grizzlies from his suspension in March, he met with Silver, the commissioner, and called the meeting an “open discussion.”
“Obviously, he said things I need to be better at, but more of just showing his support towards me,” Morant said during the interview with ESPN. “I accepted that, and I also sent my apologies to everybody — to the league, myself, my teammates, my family for putting that negativity towards all of us with a bad decision.”
Morant’s eight-game suspension, announced March 15, included the five games he had already missed when he left the team for counseling.
“I’m a totally different person than what’s been shown in the media,” Morant said in the ESPN interview, broadcast hours after his suspension was announced. “That’s my job now. That’s why I took that time away, to become a better Ja, so everybody really can see who Ja really is and you know what he’s about.”
Once he returned, he showed a mixture of defiance and contrition. He said the journey that he began in counseling was a continuing process.
He was celebrated by Grizzlies fans in his first game back. Members of his family wore attire that said “redemption” on it. In comments after the game, Morant indicated that he felt unfairly targeted at times.
Still, that return was an opportunity for Morant to show that his stated desire to be better was sincere.
Morant is one of the league’s top guards. His signature shoe with Nike made its debut in March. Nike did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Morant’s latest suspension. After the March incidents, Nike released a statement saying the company supported Morant’s “prioritization of his well-being.”
He just completed his fourth season with the Grizzlies, having come to the team as a small but electrifying point guard out of Murray State as the No. 2 overall pick in the 2019 draft. He is the leader on a young team that had been one of the best in the Western Conference all season even as Memphis coped with injuries to key players.
Last week, after Morant was not selected as one of the six guards on the three All-N.B.A. teams, he reposted a tweet from a Grizzlies beat writer that suggested that his off-court behavior might have contributed to his not being selected.
Morant signed a five-year contract extension last summer, which included an additional $38 million if he made the All-N.B.A. team this year. According to The Associated Press, Morant filed a countersuit against Holloway in April, accusing Holloway of harming his reputation and potentially costing him millions of dollars.
Source: Basketball - nytimes.com
