After his second incident involving the possession of firearms, the NBA has finally come to a decision on the punishment for Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant. Earlier this year, Morant was suspended eight games for flashing a gun in a nightclub, but apparently, that wasn’t enough to deter him from doing the same thing all over again. This time, flashing a “fake” gun on Instagram Live has landed Ja a twenty-five-game suspension to begin the 2023-2024 NBA season.
Since this incident took place over a month ago, the NBA world has continuously speculated on the severity of Morant’s punishment, many believing he would (and should) be suspended for at least half the season. While Memphis ended up losing to the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of this year’s NBA Playoffs, the Grizzlies are still a very promising young team. That being said, Ja Morant is the clear leader of this team and they will desperately need him at his best in order to compete for a championship next season. Twenty-five games is still a substantial number to miss, but as we saw this year with the Miami Heat, all you need to do nowadays is make the Play-In Tournament in order to give yourself a chance at making a deep playoff run.
I hope that Ja Morant is able to sort out his off-the-court issues as he truly is an amazing player to watch. I mean, the guy is literally Derrick Rose without knee problems, who wouldn’t want to watch that? I have faith that Morant will come back strong next season, but even if he doesn’t become a top player in the league like many believe he can, he still won’t be more of a bust than Zion.
