Controversies off the NBA court are starting to mount for Ja Morant. The American Daily The Washington Post just revealed on Wednesday that the Memphis Grizzlies star was accused in police reports last year of hitting a 17-year-old boy. If the player’s agent claimed that he had acted in self-defense, the case caused a stir across the Atlantic. However, no action has been taken against Ja Morant concerning these facts, which occurred during an improvised match at the home of the basketball player, in Tennessee, last July.
In the police report obtained by The Washington Post, the anonymous teenager accuses Ja Morant of hitting him “12 to 13 times”. In interviews with police, he added that after their altercation, “Morant went to his house and reappeared with a gun visible in the waistband of his pants.”
“He did not have a firearm”, assures his agent
Questioned by the police, the whimsical rear admitted having “swung first”, acting according to him in self-defense. The teenager allegedly threw a ball at him which hit him in the head, accompanying his gesture with a comment that the 23-year-old playmaker found threatening. Ja Morant’s agent, Jim Tanner, strongly denied, in a press release released on Wednesday, that the player had a gun. “The July 26 incident was absolutely self-defense,” he said.
“Again, this was thoroughly investigated by law enforcement, who made the decision not to prosecute Ja,” says Jim Tanner. Any of the many witnesses will confirm that Ja acted in self-defense and did not have a gun. For TMZ, Jim Tanner called it “disturbing that unsubstantiated rumors and gossip are being spread by people motivated to tear Ja down and tarnish her reputation for their own financial gain.”
The Pacers felt “in grave danger”
Days before the incident, the head of security at a Memphis mall told police he felt “threatened” by Ja Morant and a group of friends in the mall’s parking lot. A police report had been drawn up without leading, again, to prosecution. The 2019 second draft pick was further embroiled in controversy last month when the NBA investigated the Indiana Pacers’ allegations.
The franchise accused Ja Morant’s entourage of “aggressively confronting” team members and staff, just after a game between Grizzlies and Pacers played in Memphis. In particular, they would have pointed a red laser in their direction. One of the Pacers’ security guards was convinced it was the laser associated with a gun. “We felt that we were in serious danger”, had even entrusted a witness To The Athletic. You will have understood it, the NBA seems to hold with Ja Morant its jewel king of the Top 10, but also a sacred bad boy in power.