Ja Morant suspended 25 games by NBA after second alleged gun incident
Ja Morant has been suspended 25 games to begin the 2023-24 season, the NBA announced Friday morning. The suspension comes exactly one month after the star Memphis Grizzlies point guard was seen flashing what appeared to be a gun on an Instagram live stream for the second time in less than three months.
The suspension will come with conditions for his return.
"Ja Morant's decision to once again wield a firearm on social media is alarming and disconcerting given his similar conduct in March for which he was already suspended eight games," NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement.
Morant has been suspended from all Grizzlies team activities since May 14 after the second video of him apparently brandishing a firearm surfaced.
Silver delayed the announcement of Morant's suspension until after the NBA Finals, a move he said was intended to keep the focus on the series between the Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat, which resulted in the Nuggets defeating the Miami head 4-1 earlier this week.
Morant's 25-game suspension is among the longest the NBA has handed out for behavior on or off the court. Other players who have received extended suspensions include:
JA MORANT, MARCH-JUNE, 2023
Before Morant's 25-game suspension, the No. 2 overall pick of 2019 was sidelined eight games by the NBA for flashing a handgun in a social media the Memphis Grizzlies guard livestreamed himself from a Denver-area club in the early hours of March 4.
TYREKE EVANS, MAY 2019
The Indiana Pacers guard was banned at least two years for violating the league's anti-drug policy. The 2010 NBA Rookie of the Year was eligible to apply for reinstatement in 2021
O.J. MAYO, July 2016
The No. 3 overall pick of 2008 was dismissed and disqualified by the NBA for violating the league's anti-drug program, the first player to receive that punishment in a decade. He was allowed to apply for reinstatement after two years but never played in the NBA again.
GILBERT ARENAS AND JARVIS CRITTENDON, JANUARY 2010
Arenas missed the final 50 games of the regular season after originally being suspended indefintitely, while Crittendon was suspended for 38 for bringing guns into the Washington Wizards' locker room Dec. 21 and displaying the unloaded weapons to each other after a fight on a team flight home from Phoenix.
CHRIS "BIRDMAN" ANDERSEN, JANUARY 2006
He missed 193 games after being "dismissed and disqualified" for a third violation of the league's anti-drug program. He was sidelined until being reinstated in March 2008 and won a championship with Miami in 2013.
RON ARTEST, NOVEMBER 2004
Now known as Metta Sandiford-Artest. Suspended for 73 games and the playoffs over the "Malice at the Palace" that started as a disagreement between the Indiana Pacers forward and Detroit Pistons power forward Ben Wallace. The NBA issued some of the harshest penalties in its history by banning nine players for more than 140 games with Artest's suspension the strongest ever levied for a fight during a game. Wallace and Pacers players Stephen Jackson, Jermaine O'Neal and Anthony Johnson all received significant suspensions.
LATRELL SPREWELL, DECEMBER 1997
His one-year suspension was the longest suspension in league history at the time, for assaulting Golden State coach P.J. Carlesimo. The Warriors already had terminated the final three years of the All-Star guard's four-year, $32 million contract. He returned and played five seasons with the Knicks and two with Minnesota.
KERMIT WASHINGTON, DECEMBER 1977
The Lakers forward was fined $10,000 and suspended 60 days for punching Rudy Tomjanovich of the Houston Rockets, shattering Tomjanovich's face and nearly killing him. Tomjanovich made a full recovery, was an All-Star in 1979 and won two NBA titles as the Rockets' head coach in 1994 and 1995.
Information from the Associated Press contributed to this report.
