The NBA is investigating Ja Morant for a gesture he made at the end of Tuesday’s Memphis Grizzlies loss to the Golden State Warriors, according to ESPN. Late in the game, the star Memphis point guard appeared to make a finger gun gesture with both hands directed towards Golden State’s bench.
The league probe will also look into a gesture made by Warriors guard Buddy Hield. The league could talk to the involved parties as soon as Wednesday, according to Charania.
Morant has been suspended multiple times in the past for incidents involving actual guns. In 2023, he was suspended eight games after flashing a gun on Instagram at a Colorado nightclub. Then, in May of the same year, he was suspended 25 more games after again showing off a gun while in a car during another Instagram video.
He was also investigated for an incident that took place after a Jan. 29, 2023 game against the Indiana Pacers in which a person in Morant’s SUV allegedly shined a red laser pointer at a Pacers team bus following a confrontation between some of Morant’s acquaintances and members of Indiana’s traveling party. The NBA ultimately could not determine that anyone was threatened with a weapon.
When issuing discipline, the NBA does consider a player’s past. When suspending players involved in Sunday’s fight between the Timberwolves and Pistons, for example, Isaiah Stewart was banned for two games in part because of “his repeated history of unsportsmanlike acts.” This precedent also informed the indefinite suspension Warriors star Draymond Green earned last season after his flagrant foul on Jusuf Nurkić.
Those incidents included physical, on-court confrontations, though. This investigation is centered on a gesture. That doesn’t preclude the NBA from disciplining Morant, as the NBA’s constitution gives the commissioner quite a bit of latitude in doing so. The exact wording of that rule is as follows:
“If in the opinion of the Commissioner any act or conduct of a Player at or during an Exhibition, Regular Season, Play-In, or Playoff game has been prejudicial to or against the best interests of the Association or the game of basketball, the Commissioner shall impose upon such Player a fine not exceeding $100,000, or may order for a time the suspension of any such Player from any connection or duties with Exhibition, Regular Season, Play-In, or Playoff games, or he may order both such fine and suspension.”
Essentially, this rule does grant the commissioner the power to punish Morant for a gesture provided he believes that is against the best interests of the league. Given Morant’s history, it’s possible that he does. This is yet another obstacle for a Memphis team still trying to find its footing after the surprising firing of head coach Taylor Jenkins. Memphis slipped to sixth in the Western Conference playoff picture with Tuesday’s loss.
