Ja Morant displayed a fictitious firearm. The NBA responded by imposing a hefty fine.
The Grizzlies star was fined $75,000 by the NBA on Friday, a day after he once more celebrated scoring 3-pointers with the aiming-a-gun gesture. The league has warned Morant about imitating the act of using a gun during a game for the second time this week. Morant was suspended twice in 2023 for incidents with real guns.
“Morant was previously warned by the league office that this gesture could be interpreted in a negative light,” the league said, calling the gesture “inappropriate.”
[MORE: NBA warns Ja Morant, Buddy Hield following gun gestures]
During a Grizzlies-Warriors game on Tuesday, Morant and Buddy Hield of Golden State made the gesture at each other, which led to the first encounter with the league office and that warning. Given that Morant used identical motions during Thursday’s game, it is clear that the league office’s warning was disregarded.
Although it seemed to have occurred after each of his three completed 3-pointers, the NBA said it happened twice. The game’s TNT broadcast did not feature the third incident.
This season, Morant and other Grizzlies players have made the gun motion a lot, notably during Thursday night’s game against Miami. In the first quarter of the game, Morant scored a 3-pointer before turning to face the Memphis bench and extending his left arm completely.
The other motions, which were again aimed at Memphis teammates, were comparable.
Morant lost 33 games and around $8.3 million in pay as a result of the two bans in 2023. The first was an eight-game suspension for live-streaming a video of him brandishing a gun at a nightclub in the Denver area while inebriated.
However, the league claimed that Morant “wielded the firearm while knowing that he was being recorded and that the recording was being live streamed on Instagram Live, despite having made commitments to the NBA and public statements that he would not repeat the conduct for which he was previously disciplined.” Morant was also given a 25-game suspension for posing with a firearm in a car during another live-streamed video.
