Ja Morant is among the brightest young stars in the NBA, with a new signature Nike shoe, a top-selling jersey and a team, the Memphis Grizzlies, poised for a deep postseason run. But in a string of incidents dating from last summer, Morant and people close to him have been accused of threatening and even violent behavior, according to previously unreported police records obtained by The Washington Post.
Last summer, in an encounter that has not been previously reported, the head of security at a Memphis mall told police that Morant “threatened” him during an altercation in the parking lot, leaving him alarmed enough that he filed a police report. A member of Morant’s group shoved the director in the head, he told police. No arrests were made, records show.
Four days later, Morant repeatedly punched a teenage boy in the head during a pickup basketball game at Morant’s house, the boy told police. Morant and his friend struck the 17-year-old so hard they knocked him to the ground and left him with a “large knot” on the side of his head, according to a police report narrative written by deputies who said they observed the boy’s injuries.
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The teenager told detectives from the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office that, after the fight, Morant went into his house and re-emerged with a gun visible in the waistband of his pants and his hand on the weapon, according to police interviews obtained by The Post, which have not previously been reported.
In an interview with police, Morant said he acted in self-defense. “I swung first,” he told detectives, but he believed the boy had been the aggressor because he threw a ball at Morant’s head and then stepped toward him, pulling up his pants. “The ball was to me the first hit,” Morant told police.
During the interview, detectives mentioned the boy’s allegation that Morant flashed a gun but did not ask Morant whether it was true.
Morant told police that as the boy left, he shouted, “I’m gonna come back and light this place up like fireworks.” Weeks after the incident, according to records obtained by The Post, Morant filed a police report about the boy’s comment, saying the teenager had threatened his family.
Prosecutors reviewed the case but declined to file charges, the Shelby County District Attorney said in a statement. The office “decided that there was not enough evidence to proceed with a case,” a spokesperson said.
Neither incident was made public at the time. Morant, 23, began this season strong, starting in the recent All-Star Game and leading the Grizzlies to the second-best record in the Western Conference. But he was drawn into public controversy in recent weeks when the NBA investigated an allegation that someone in Morant’s vehicle pointed the laser sight of a gun toward members of the Indiana Pacers organization.
In a statement, Morant’s agent, Jim Tanner, characterized the allegations as “unsubstantiated rumors and gossip are being put out by people motivated to tear Ja down and tarnish his reputation for their own financial gain.” The boy and his mother filed a lawsuit against Morant over the incident, his family attorney confirmed. The existence of the suit, which is under seal, was reported earlier this year by TMZ.
“Any and every allegation involving a firearm has been fully investigated and could not be corroborated. This includes the NBA investigation last month, in which they found no evidence,” Tanner said. The incident with the teenage boy, Tanner said, “was purely self-defense. Again, after this was fully investigated by law enforcement, they came to the decision not to charge Ja with any crime.”
The Grizzlies declined to comment. An NBA spokesperson said the league “takes allegations of inappropriate conduct very seriously.” Teams are required to report “incidents involving players and law enforcement,” the spokesperson said, but he would not say whether the Grizzlies had reported either of the July 2022 incidents, or whether the NBA had investigated.
The league’s investigation of the allegation involving the Pacers “did not corroborate that any individual threatened others with a weapon,” the spokesperson said.
Ja Morant was one of the stars of last year’s playoffs before the Grizzlies lost a heated series with the eventual-champion Golden State Warriors. Two months after the loss to Golden State, Morant’s mother was at a Finish Line shoe store at a Memphis mall when she got in a dispute with a store employee, according to a Memphis Police report obtained by The Post. She called Morant, who arrived shortly after with a group of as many as nine other people.
Former NFL player Shannon Sharpe, left, talks with Tee Morant, father of Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant, after a game against the Los Angeles Lakers in January. At halftime, Sharpe confronted Memphis Grizzlies forward Dillon Brooks and center Steven Adams. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Confronted by the director of mall security, Morant and his friends refused the security guard’s demands to leave the mall parking lot. Police arrived and a “verbal confrontation” escalated, the report says, until someone in the group allegedly pushed the security director in the head.
“As the group was leaving the premises … Ja Morant said, ‘Let me find out what time he gets off,’ ” police wrote in the report.
The guard wanted to file a report, police wrote, “because he felt threatened by the statement from Ja Morant” and had been assaulted by the person who had pushed him. The “disturbing parties left the scene,” and no arrests were made.
The Grizzlies, NBA and Morant’s agent did not respond to questions about the incident. The security guard declined to comment.
Among the players on the gated court was a talented local high-schooler who, he would later tell police, considered Morant a mentor. Though the police records identify the boy, The Post is not naming him to protect the privacy of a juvenile.
He had been invited to the games before, the 17-year-old said in the police interview, but he still found himself entranced by Morant: “He was doing some amazing things, and I was just impressed,” the teenager said to police. “I’m playing against an all-star, you know?”
The teenager drew the task of guarding one of the world’s most electric scorers. When Morant threw the ball hard at the boy’s chest as he attempted to check it in, the boy threw it back just as hard. The ball “slipped through [Morant’s] hands,” the teenager said, and it hit Morant’s chin.
The teenager told police Morant then put his chin on the boy’s shoulder and asked his friend, “Do I do it to him?” The friend responded, “Yeah, do it.”
Morant then punched the boy in his jaw, the boy told police, and without warning, the friend struck him on the other side. “I fell to the ground, trying to cover my face, so I wouldn’t get hit in the face,” the boy told police. “I got, started getting hit, punched in my head, everything else.”
A police report describes accusations of violence and threats again Ja Morant of the Memphis Grizzlies.
“Ja hit me like 12 to 13 times,” the boy said, adding that the friend struck him four or five times. When police asked the boy how hard the punches landed, he compared them to an MMA bout.
Last summer, in an encounter that has not been previously reported, the head of security at a Memphis mall told police that Morant “threatened” him during an altercation in the parking lot, leaving him alarmed enough that he filed a police report. A member of Morant’s group shoved the director in the head, he told police. No arrests were made, records show.
Four days later, Morant repeatedly punched a teenage boy in the head during a pickup basketball game at Morant’s house, the boy told police. Morant and his friend struck the 17-year-old so hard they knocked him to the ground and left him with a “large knot” on the side of his head, according to a police report narrative written by deputies who said they observed the boy’s injuries.
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The teenager told detectives from the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office that, after the fight, Morant went into his house and re-emerged with a gun visible in the waistband of his pants and his hand on the weapon, according to police interviews obtained by The Post, which have not previously been reported.
In an interview with police, Morant said he acted in self-defense. “I swung first,” he told detectives, but he believed the boy had been the aggressor because he threw a ball at Morant’s head and then stepped toward him, pulling up his pants. “The ball was to me the first hit,” Morant told police.
During the interview, detectives mentioned the boy’s allegation that Morant flashed a gun but did not ask Morant whether it was true.
Morant told police that as the boy left, he shouted, “I’m gonna come back and light this place up like fireworks.” Weeks after the incident, according to records obtained by The Post, Morant filed a police report about the boy’s comment, saying the teenager had threatened his family.
Prosecutors reviewed the case but declined to file charges, the Shelby County District Attorney said in a statement. The office “decided that there was not enough evidence to proceed with a case,” a spokesperson said.
Neither incident was made public at the time. Morant, 23, began this season strong, starting in the recent All-Star Game and leading the Grizzlies to the second-best record in the Western Conference. But he was drawn into public controversy in recent weeks when the NBA investigated an allegation that someone in Morant’s vehicle pointed the laser sight of a gun toward members of the Indiana Pacers organization.
In a statement, Morant’s agent, Jim Tanner, characterized the allegations as “unsubstantiated rumors and gossip are being put out by people motivated to tear Ja down and tarnish his reputation for their own financial gain.” The boy and his mother filed a lawsuit against Morant over the incident, his family attorney confirmed. The existence of the suit, which is under seal, was reported earlier this year by TMZ.
“Any and every allegation involving a firearm has been fully investigated and could not be corroborated. This includes the NBA investigation last month, in which they found no evidence,” Tanner said. The incident with the teenage boy, Tanner said, “was purely self-defense. Again, after this was fully investigated by law enforcement, they came to the decision not to charge Ja with any crime.”
The Grizzlies declined to comment. An NBA spokesperson said the league “takes allegations of inappropriate conduct very seriously.” Teams are required to report “incidents involving players and law enforcement,” the spokesperson said, but he would not say whether the Grizzlies had reported either of the July 2022 incidents, or whether the NBA had investigated.
The league’s investigation of the allegation involving the Pacers “did not corroborate that any individual threatened others with a weapon,” the spokesperson said.
A call from the mall
Morant is known for highflying dunks, a thirst for trash talk and a tightknit relationship with his father, Tee, who sits courtside at many games. His family has become so much a part of Morant’s brand that Tee Morant narrated the commercial launching his son’s latest major brand deal, with Powerade.Ja Morant was one of the stars of last year’s playoffs before the Grizzlies lost a heated series with the eventual-champion Golden State Warriors. Two months after the loss to Golden State, Morant’s mother was at a Finish Line shoe store at a Memphis mall when she got in a dispute with a store employee, according to a Memphis Police report obtained by The Post. She called Morant, who arrived shortly after with a group of as many as nine other people.
Former NFL player Shannon Sharpe, left, talks with Tee Morant, father of Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant, after a game against the Los Angeles Lakers in January. At halftime, Sharpe confronted Memphis Grizzlies forward Dillon Brooks and center Steven Adams. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Confronted by the director of mall security, Morant and his friends refused the security guard’s demands to leave the mall parking lot. Police arrived and a “verbal confrontation” escalated, the report says, until someone in the group allegedly pushed the security director in the head.
“As the group was leaving the premises … Ja Morant said, ‘Let me find out what time he gets off,’ ” police wrote in the report.
The guard wanted to file a report, police wrote, “because he felt threatened by the statement from Ja Morant” and had been assaulted by the person who had pushed him. The “disturbing parties left the scene,” and no arrests were made.
The Grizzlies, NBA and Morant’s agent did not respond to questions about the incident. The security guard declined to comment.
‘I swung first’
Less than a week later, Morant, as he often did, hosted an evening pickup basketball game at his family home, a sprawling brick mansion on the edge of Memphis. His parents and sister were there, as was Mike Miller, the former NBA player.Among the players on the gated court was a talented local high-schooler who, he would later tell police, considered Morant a mentor. Though the police records identify the boy, The Post is not naming him to protect the privacy of a juvenile.
He had been invited to the games before, the 17-year-old said in the police interview, but he still found himself entranced by Morant: “He was doing some amazing things, and I was just impressed,” the teenager said to police. “I’m playing against an all-star, you know?”
The teenager drew the task of guarding one of the world’s most electric scorers. When Morant threw the ball hard at the boy’s chest as he attempted to check it in, the boy threw it back just as hard. The ball “slipped through [Morant’s] hands,” the teenager said, and it hit Morant’s chin.
The teenager told police Morant then put his chin on the boy’s shoulder and asked his friend, “Do I do it to him?” The friend responded, “Yeah, do it.”
Morant then punched the boy in his jaw, the boy told police, and without warning, the friend struck him on the other side. “I fell to the ground, trying to cover my face, so I wouldn’t get hit in the face,” the boy told police. “I got, started getting hit, punched in my head, everything else.”
A police report describes accusations of violence and threats again Ja Morant of the Memphis Grizzlies.
“Ja hit me like 12 to 13 times,” the boy said, adding that the friend struck him four or five times. When police asked the boy how hard the punches landed, he compared them to an MMA bout.
