Early on Saturday morning, a video began circulating of Ja Morant in a nightclub flashing a gun. The video appeared to come from Morant’s Instagram account, where he went live from a nightclub at some point in the aftermath of the Memphis Grizzlies‘ loss to the Denver Nuggets on Friday. If you would like to watch the video, you can do so here.
Considering a recent Washington Post report that laid out some off-court issues Morant has ran into in recent months, the video led to Morant receiving plenty of criticism. And right around midday on Saturday, the NBA released a statement indicating that an investigation into the video is ongoing.
NBA spokesman Mike Bass: “We are aware of a social media post involving Ja Morant and are investigating.”
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 4, 2023
The reporting from the Post laid out a trio of incidents in which “Morant and people close to him have been accused of threatening and even violent behavior.” Two of these incidents — a fight in which Morant “repeatedly punched a teenage boy in the head” during a pickup game at his house over the summer and a moment after a game where someone with Morant pointed a laser at members of the Indiana Pacers — had previously been reported, while an additional incident involving Morant and a number of his friends going to a mall in Memphis due to an alleged confrontation between a Finish Line employee and Morant’s mother was new.
Via Washington Post:
Confronted by the director of mall security, Morant and his friends refused the security guard’s demands to leave the mall parking lot. Police arrived and a “verbal confrontation” escalated, the report says, until someone in the group allegedly pushed the security director in the head.
“As the group was leaving the premises … Ja Morant said, ‘Let me find out what time he gets off,’ ” police wrote in the report.
The video of Morant with a gun came after the Grizzlies traveled to Denver and fell to the Nuggets, 113-97, although it is unclear if the video came from a nightclub in Denver. Memphis is on a four-game road trip, with their next two games taking place against the Los Angeles squads on Sunday and Tuesday.
