Morant holds gun in video, says he’ll get help
Ja Morant will be away from the Memphis Grizzlies for at least their next two games, the team announced Saturday, not long after the NBA opened an investigation into a social media post by the guard, who livestreamed himself holding what appeared to be a gun at a nightclub.
Morant said in a statement distributed through the agency that represents him that he takes “full responsibility” for his actions and that he was going to “take some time away to get help.”
The video was streamed by Morant on his Instagram page early Saturday, hours after the Grizzlies played in Denver. They were flying to Los Angeles on Saturday for games against the Clippers on Sunday and the Lakers on Tuesday.
Morant will miss those two games, at minimum, the Grizzlies said, without further comment.
“We are aware of a social media post involving Ja Morant and are investigating,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass said earlier Saturday.
The league will try to speak with Morant as part of that investigation, though it is unclear when any meeting may occur. Morant apologized in a statement released by Tandem Sports + Entertainment.
“I take full responsibility for my actions last night,” Morant said. “I’m sorry
to my family, teammates, coaches, fans, partners, the city of Memphis and the entire Grizzlies organization for letting you down. I’m going to take some time away to get help and work on learning better methods of dealing with stress and my overall well-being.” GRIZZLIES CLARKE OUT INDEFINITELY >> Memphis Grizzlies forward Brandon Clarke tore his left Achilles tendon and will be out indefinitely, the team announced.
Clarke was injured Friday night late in the first quarter of the Grizzlies’ 113-97 loss to the Nuggets, a showdown of the top two teams in the Western Conference.
Motor sports
LOGANO WINS NASCAR POLE >> Defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano,
who won the October race at Las Vegas, won the pole for Sunday’s Pennzoil 400.
Logano qualified at 186.053 mph in the Team Penske No. 22 Ford. He has won three of his past eight Cup races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
William Byron, in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet, qualified second at 185.153 mph. ELLIOTT OUT INDEFINITELY AFTER SURGERY >> Chase Elliott is out indefinitely after undergoing a successful three-hour surgery to repair a fractured tibia, Hendrick Motorsports general manager Jeff Andrews said.
Andrews said there was no timeline on when the star NASCAR driver would return. Elliott injured his left leg Friday while snowboarding in Colorado. Josh Berry will drive the No. 9
Chevrolet in place of Elliott in Sunday’s Cup race in Las Vegas.
GROSJEAN LEADS INDYCAR QUALIFYING >> Romain Grosjean opened his third season in IndyCar by winning the pole in qualifying on the downtown streets of St. Petersburg.
The Frenchman led an all-Andretti Autosport front row in qualifying and surged to the second pole of his IndyCar career in the waning moments of the session. He beat teammate Colton Herta for the top starting position in Sunday’s race.
VERSTAPPEN, PEREZ GO 1-2 >> World champion Max Verstappen took pole position ahead of Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.
Perez beat Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to place second, .138 seconds behind Verstappen under the floodlights at the desert track in Sakhir.
Baseball FEMALE MANAGER GETS DAY AS BENCH COACH >>
As she prepares for her first managing job in the minor leagues, Ronnie Gajownik took on a temporary role — bench coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
D-backs manager Torey Lovullo confirmed Gajownik’s spot before the spring training game against San Diego, and they sat next to each other talking as the first inning started.
The 29-year-old Gajownik was hired during the offseason as manager of the D-backs minor league affiliate Hillsboro Hops. She’ll be the first woman to manage a Class High-A team.
Golf
ROOKIE HAS LEAD >> PGA Tour rookie Nico Echavarria of Colombia ran off four straight birdies early in his round and finished with a 7-under 65 for a two-shot lead in the Puerto Rico Open as he goes for his first PGA Tour victory.
Carson Young, who led the opening two rounds at Grand Reserve, had to birdie the last hole for a 71 and was Echavarria’s closest pursuer.
KO LEADS BY TWO >> Defending champion Jin Young Ko shot a second consecutive 7-under 65 to take a two-stroke lead over Nelly Korda into the final round of the LPGA’s Women’s World Championship.
Ko had a 54-hole total of 14-under 202 after another weather-delayed day at the Sentosa Golf Club. She birdied four of her first five holes and two of her last three.
Tennis
MEDVEDEV WINS TITLE >> Daniil Medvedev won this 18th tour-level title and third in a row by beating Andrey Rublev 6-2, 6-2 in an all-Russian final at the Dubai Championships.
The former No. 1 extended his winning streak to 14 matches in a run that started on Valentine’s Day and included back-to-back trophies in Rotterdam and Doha.
Skiing
SHIFFRIN’S QUEST EXTENDED >> American skier Mikaela Shiffrin finished tied for fifth in a World Cup downhill and had her quest for a record-tying 86th career victory extended by at least another day.
The race was won by home favorite Kajsa Vickhoff Lie, who became the first Norwegian woman to win a downhill in the 56year history of World Cup skiing.
The result, however, was enough for Shiffrin to lock up her fifth overall World Cup title. She leads former overall champion Lara GutBehrami by 795 points with seven races left.
KILDE WINS TO EARN TITLE >>
Aleksander Aamodt Kilde earned his second consecutive World Cup downhill title by winning Saturday’s race by more than a halfsecond.
The Norwegian collected his sixth victory in nine downhills this season, allowing him to join Stephan Eberharter as the only male ski racers in the past 45 years with that many. Eberharter did it in 2001-02 and 2002-03; before that, the last man with at least a half-dozen downhill triumphs in one season was Franz Klammer in 1977.