NBA to discipline Memphis Grizzlies’ Ja Morant after Finals

DENVER – National Basketball Association (NBA) commissioner Adam Silver announced on Thursday that the league will wait until after the completion of the NBA Finals to discipline Ja Morant

for brandishing a handgun in a social media video.

The video, which was on Instagram Live, featured the Memphis Grizzlies guard waving the gun while sitting in the passenger’s seat of a car and listening to rap music.

It went viral on May 14, and the Grizzlies suspended him from all team activities later that day.

It was the second time in three months that Morant was caught with a firearm on social media. He was previously suspended eight games and sought counselling after a March 4 incident in which he filmed himself holding a gun at a Denver strip club following a 113-97 loss to the Nuggets.

He told reporters he had received therapy to help him manage stress, describing the treatment as “an ongoing process”.

Ahead of the Finals’ Game 1, in which the Nuggets beat the Miami Heat 104-93, Silver noted that the league took into account “history of prior acts” and “the player’s history” when it decided how to punish Morant.

“We’ve uncovered a fair amount of additional information, I think, since I was first asked about the situation,” he said.

“I will say we probably could have brought it to a head now, but we made the decision, and I believe the players’ association agrees with us, that it would be unfair to these players and these teams in the middle of the series to announce the results of that investigation.

“Given that we’re of course in the off-season, he has now been suspended by the Memphis Grizzlies indefinitely, so nothing would have changed anyway in the next few weeks. It seemed better to park that at the moment, and my sense now is that shortly after the conclusion of the Finals we will announce the outcome of that investigation.”

Morant, after his initial eight-game suspension in March, also met Silver and league officials to talk about the situation. Silver said the 23-year-old seemed “heartfelt and serious”, but he is unsure if the suspension made Morant change his ways in the wake of the most recent social media video.

“I don’t think we yet know what it will take to change his behaviour,” he added.

“I’m hoping now – once we conclude at the end of our process what the appropriate discipline is, that it’s not just about the discipline, it’s about now what we, the players’ association, his team and he and the people around him are going to do to create better circumstances going forward.”

Morant is coming off his fourth season with Memphis. A two-time All-Star, he averaged 26.2 points, 5.9 rebounds and 8.1 assists in 61 games (59 starts) in 2022-23.

The NBA Finals will conclude no later than June 18, which is when Game 7 would be played if necessary. REUTERS, AFP