New details regarding Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant’s recent antics seem to suggest that the NBA knew about them well before police were willing to go public with them.
Additional information from these incidents – spanning just under a year – was recently unsealed by police. On Tuesday, The Washington Post published a report of their findings after gathering police footage and a number of other documents. They paint a picture of a police department less than eager to charge the biggest star in the city, and an NBA staying quiet about it for months.
The string of events began in the summer of 2022. On July 22, Morant and eight or nine friends went to a mall shoe store and allegedly threatened Givon Busby, a store employee, after he got into an argument with Morant’s mother Jamie over a pair of shoes that weren’t available in her size. When Morant was escorted out by the head of mall security, the parties got into another dispute and the guard alleges Morant threatened him, as well. Busby and the guard both filed police reports.
Just four days later, then-17-year-old Joshua Holloway filed a report after he was assaulted by Morant and his friend Davonte Pack during a basketball game at Morant’s house. Pack was also banned from FedEx Forum – where the Grizzlies play – after he walked onto the court during a January 2023 game in which the team got into an altercation with the Indiana Pacers. After the game, members of the Pacers alleged Morant’s associates pulled up in an SUV and pointed a laser toward their vehicle. They believe that laser was attached to a gun.
In March, Morant was seen on Instagram Live waving around a gun in a strip club. He was suspended for eight games by the team and vowed to seek counseling to help him deal with stress. Some members of the media, including former player and ESPN analyst Jay Williams, felt the suspension was too light.
Police have seemingly been lenient with Morant since the beginning. In Busby’s case, Jamie was identified as “Suspect #1 Unknown” in the report to prevent people from making the connection to Ja.
When Holloway filed his report, police didn’t interview Morant until six weeks later. During that interview – in which Morant claimed self-defense after Holloway threw a ball at him and allegedly took a threatening stance – detectives failed to ask important questions about the incident. In fact, the transcripts gave the impression that they merely gave him the benefit of the doubt. By October, the report continued, the case was shelved due to a lack of evidence.
In a March episode of ESPN’s First Take, NBA insider Brian Windhorst expressed belief that the league has known about the Holloway incident since the very beginning in July 2022. It was not made public until January 2023.
“I got a call the next day from an NBA hall-of-famer telling me about it,” Windhorst said, “and I promise you the league office heard about it before I got the phone call.”
Morant has maintained his innocence. He explained the Busby situation as him merely making sure his mother was OK, and insisted that Holloway initiated their confrontation after forcefully throwing a basketball at his face.
