Ja Morant’s eight-game NBA suspension is over, and the two-time All-Star guard can rejoin the Memphis Grizzlies.
He is expected to be on the bench Monday night when Memphis hosts Dallas, though it’s unclear exactly when he’ll play with the earliest being Wednesday. The Grizzlies announced Sunday that Morant will not play against the Mavericks because of a “Return to Competition Reconditioning.”
The Grizzlies know Morant has been working out, trying to be ready for this moment. Memphis was off on Sunday after back-to-back wins, and coach Taylor Jenkins said he would like Morant to practice or at least participate in a shootaround before seeing game action.
“We’ll see when he gets back in the team environment,” Jenkins said Saturday night before the Grizzlies beat Golden State 133-119. “Our anticipation is he’s at least out for Monday. We’ll cross the bridge on Wednesday as we get a little bit closer.”
The Grizzlies host Houston on Wednesday in the first of two games in Memphis.
Memphis went 5-3 without Morant, who first stepped away from the team March 4, hours after he livestreamed himself on Instagram brandishing a gun at strip club in Colorado following a game against the Denver Nuggets. Then the Grizzlies said on March 8 that Morant would be sidelined four more games.
Morant met with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver in New York before the NBA announced his suspension March 15, including the first six games he had already missed.
The investigation found Morant was “holding a firearm in an intoxicated state” — but did not prove that the gun was owned by Morant “or was displayed by him beyond a brief period.” The NBA also did not find that Morant had the gun with him on Memphis’ flight to Denver, or that he possessed the gun in any NBA facility.
Police in Colorado conducted their own investigation and concluded there was no reason to charge Morant with a crime after looking into the circumstances surrounding the video.
Morant said in an ESPN interview on March 15 that the gun was not his and that he takes full responsibility for his actions.
But the strip club incident wasn’t Morant’s first embarrassing off-court decision. The Grizzlies had been talking with Morant about his off-court conduct even before the March 4 incident.
“I can see the image that I painted over myself with my recent mistakes,” Morant told ESPN. “But in the future, I’m going to show everybody who Ja really is, what I’m about and change this…
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