NBA opens probe after Morant’s post with gun at club on social media
The NBA has opened an investigation into a social media post by Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant after he livestreamed himself holding what appeared to be a gun at a club early Saturday.
The video was streamed by Morant to his Instagram page, and it was not archived once he stopped the stream. The Grizzlies played in Denver on Friday night and were scheduled to fly to Los Angeles on Saturday for games against the Clippers on Sunday and the Lakers on Tuesday.
“We are aware of a social media post involving Ja Morant and are investigating,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass said Saturday.
The Grizzlies did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The league, if it finds wrongdoing, could fine or suspend Morant.
Memphis is currently No. 2 in the Western Conference standings, led by Morant, a two-time All-Star averaging 27.1 points and 8.2 assists per game.
This is at least the second time in the last few weeks that Morant has been the subject of a league investigation. Morant’s actions were investigated after a Jan. 29 incident in Memphis that he said led to a friend of his being banned from home games there for a year.
That incident was following a game against the Indiana Pacers; citing unnamed sources, The Indianapolis Star and USA Today reported that multiple members of the
Pacers saw a red dot pointed at them, and The Athletic reported that a Pacers security guard believed the laser was attached to a gun.
The NBA confirmed that unnamed individuals were banned from the arena but said its investigation found no evidence that anyone was threatened with a weapon.
There is precedent for the NBA when sanctioning a player over conduct involving guns. In January 2010, then-Commissioner David Stern suspended Washington’s Gilbert Arenas indefinitely without pay, saying his behavior made him “not currently fit to take the court.”
The suspension followed Arenas getting photographed before a game playfully pointing his index fingers in a gun imitation at his teammates while he was under investigation by federal and local authorities after admittedly bringing guns into the Wizards’ locker room.
Arenas ultimately missed 50 games, the rest of the 2009-10 season.