The past 18 months of Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant’s life have been loaded with turmoil.
The former Murray State standout and second-overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft went from a beloved star with a bright future in Memphis to having multiple suspensions for various team and league rule violations in what felt like the blink of an eye.
Morant is suspended for the first 25 games of the 2023-24 season following an incident involving showing a firearm on Instagram over the summer, just two months after being suspended for the exact same thing in March.
On Tuesday, ESPN put out an article taking a deep look into how Morant’s past couple of years have gone. Much of the article’s focus was placed on Morant’s father, Tee.
He moved to Memphis a week after Ja was drafted and has been around his son every step of the way. Tee has had his own incidents, confronting Shannon Sharpe at a Lakers game in January and getting in a verbal altercation with Indiana Pacers players later that same week. These incidents concerned many in the Grizzlies organization, sources told ESPN.
“Tee has been a major driving force in all of this,” one team source told ESPN. “He never made the NBA, but this was his chance to live like he’s an NBA superstar. That’s been a problem from the beginning.”
Ja Morant is now at a crossroads. He’s facing one of the longest suspensions in NBA history and will miss more than a quarter of the 2023-24 season. Where he goes from here is entirely up to him.
[ESPN]