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Thursday 16 March 2023
NBA suspends Ja Morant 8 games for video showing gun in club

By TIM REYNOLDS tentially very dangerous,”
AP Basketball Writer NBA Commissioner Adam
MIAMI (AP) — The NBA Silver said in a statement.
suspended Memphis Griz- “It also has serious conse-
zlies guard Ja Morant eight quences given his enor-
games without pay on mous following and influ-
Wednesday after deter- ence, particularly among
mining that his displaying young fans who look up to
a firearm at a club in sub- him.” Silver met with Mo-
urban Denver earlier this rant in New York before
month was “conduct detri- announcing the league’s
mental to the league.” decision. The Grizzlies had
Morant will miss his sixth no immediate comment;
game when the Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins is
play in Miami on Wednes- scheduled to hold his stan-
day night. He will miss the dard pregame availabil-
next two games and be ity Wednesday evening in
eligible to return on Mon- Miami before the game
day when Memphis plays against the Heat.
Dallas. The games he al- The league’s investigation,
ready missed will count to- which started almost im-
ward the suspension, and mediately after the March
Morant will forfeit about 4 incident in which Morant
$669,000 in salary. Memphis Grizzlies’ Ja Morant is shown during an NBA basketball game against the Los Angeles livestreamed himself on Ins-
“Ja’s conduct was irre- Lakers, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, in Memphis, Tenn. Associated Press tagram, found that he was
sponsible, reckless and po- “holding a firearm in an in-
toxicated state” but did
not prove that the gun was
owned by Morant “or was
displayed by him beyond
a brief period.”
The league investigation
also did not find that Mo-
rant had the gun with him
on Memphis’ flight to Den-
ver, or that he possessed
the gun while in any NBA
facility. Police in Colo-
rado said last week that
they looked into the cir-
cumstances surrounding
the video and concluded
that there was no reason
to charge Morant with a
crime. The Grizzlies initially
said Morant would miss at
least two games. Hours lat-
er, Morant said in a state-
ment distributed through
the agency that represents
him that he takes “full re-
sponsibility” for his actions
and that he was going to
“take some time away to
get help.” ESPN reported
that Morant sought coun-
seling at a facility in Florida.
The two-game absence
was followed by the team
announcing last week that
Morant would miss at least
four more games, a stretch
that concludes Wednes-
day. Morant then met
with Silver on Wednesday
as the NBA’s investigation
was concluding. He knows
now when he’ll be eligible
to return.
It wasn’t immediately clear
if Morant will be ready to
play on Monday.q