Ja Morant, one of the NBA’s preeminent aerial artists, is apparently no longer interested in high-flying dunks. On Nov. 6, the Memphis Grizzlies guard took a midair hit from Los Angeles Lakers center Christian Koloko while attempting to catch an alley-oop, which caused him to miss eight games with a partial posterior hip subluxation and multiple pelvic muscle strains. On Tuesday, after the Grizzlies’ 121-116 loss against the Dallas Mavericks, Morant told reporters that he has come to the conclusion that his more daring dunk attempts are too risky.
“I’m not trying to dunk at all,” Morant said, via ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. “Y’all think I’m lying. I’m dead serious.”
Morant explained: “Sometimes I get knocked out the air and [a foul] don’t get called, and now I’m out longer than what I’m supposed to be. Sometimes the foul might get called; I still hit the floor, but after the game you might feel that little fall. So I just pick and choose, man. Hey, two points is two points. I get it done. That’s all that matters.”
In 12 games this season, Morant has dunked four times. One of them came on a breakaway on Tuesday, and there was a smattering of boos when he delicately dropped the ball through the net instead of doing something spectacular.
“Hey, I’m fine with that,” Morant told reporters. “Continue to boo me. Hey, I got two points. It was still a dunk. It was just not the dunk they wanted to see. But if they boo me off a little rim-grazer, I’m fine with that.”
The irony is that Morant has had two of the best dunks of the season since returning from injury. In his first game back, against the Portland Trail Blazers, he threw down a soaring tomahawk on a fast break, then said in his walk-off interview, “Really, I wanted to lay that up, but that’s my one dunk for the year, so y’all be happy.” In his next game, against the New Orleans Pelicans, Morant finished an alley-oop from Brandon Clarke with his head at rim level.
Morant, 25, is listed at 6-foot-2 and 174 pounds. He has never been afraid to attack the basket, but his extraordinary leaping ability does not mean he is actually superhuman. The hits and hard falls add up, and he already has a long list of injury-related absences. It makes sense that he’s thinking about the long-term ramifications of his style of play, even if it means fewer crazy highlights (and even if he can’t help himself sometimes).
Unsurprisingly, Morant does not plan to participate in the dunk contest.
“If I’m chillin’ on the in-game, you ain’t gotta worry dunk contest, either,” Morant told reporters. “Man, my focus right now is do what I can with the team and continue to try to get to 100 percent [healthy].”
One silver lining, from an entertainment perspective: Some of Morant’s best in-game highlights happen when he’s avoiding contact. Examples 1A and 1B: his two 360-degree layups against the Brooklyn Nets last month.
Morant is averaging 22 points, 4.1 rebounds and 8.6 assists in 27.7 minutes for the Grizzlies, who are 8-4 with him in the lineup and 14-8 overall.
