NBA commissioner Adam Silver shared his first public comments on the latest troubling video involving Memphis Grizzlies superstar Ja Morant.
On Saturday, Morant was seen in a live Instagram video (posted by one of Morant’s friends) holding what appeared to be a weapon. The video was taken down soon after going viral, and the Grizzlies have since suspended Morant from team activities.
This latest incident comes just over two months after Morant flashed a gun in a live Instagram video while he was at nightclub in Denver, Colorado. Though Morant wasn’t charged with anything, the league proceeded to hand him an eight-game suspension.
Speaking on “NBA Countdown” with Malika Andrews, Silver expressed shock and extreme disappointment over Morant’s latest video (h/t Zac Al-Khateeb of The Sporting News):
“Well, we talked directly about the consequences first, before we got to a subsequent potential to have done something wrong. We were very focused on the misconduct that was in front of us at the time. And frankly, most of our conversation was about how incredibly serious the first incident was, waving a firearm on social media.
And again, the consequences there, an eight-game suspension was pretty serious and something that he at least to me seemed to take incredibly serious in that time. And we spoke a long time not just about the consequences that could have on his career, the safety issues on it. He could have injured, maimed, killed himself, someone else, with an act like that…
Honestly, I was shocked when I saw, this weekend, that video. Now, we’re in the process of investigating it. And we’ll figure out what happened to the best we can.
After the Denver nightclub gun-flashing incident, Morant attended counseling for stress management. He helped the Grizzlies finish as the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference, but they fell to LeBron James’ Los Angeles Lakers in the opening round.
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Per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Morant shared this statement on Tuesday evening:
The soon-to-be 24-year-old Morant was drafted second overall by the Grizzlies in 2019, right after the New Orleans Pelicans drafted generational prospect Zion Williamson with the No. 1 selection.
The 2020 Rookie of the Year and 2022 Most Improved Player earned his first career All-Star nods in each of the last two years. After a frustrating rebuilding period in Memphis, Morant helped the Grizzlies reach the postseason in 2021, 2022 and 2023
We’ll be share to provide more details on the Morant situation as they become available.
