[Source](https://twitter.com/CandaceDBuckner/status/1631008962152747021)
The other posts on this are paywall’d so here’s the most important excerpt
>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.
> 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.
> 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.”
by TacoooJay
33 Comments
I’m no lawyer but is hitting someone because they threw a ball at your head (did it connect?) and they pulled their pants up legally self defense?
Any% Speed run to least likeable star in the league
Even if he’s been cleared by everyone, you gotta be smarter than to be put in these situations.
[deleted]
Mall incident mentioned in the article is new:
> 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.
>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.
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Also his best friend Pack seems to be a common denominator (and the punched boy’s mom doesn’t seem to have a good rep in the legal system):
> In an interview with police, a transcript shows, one of Morant’s attorneys, who did not respond to a request for comment from The Post, said the boy’s mother had demanded millions of dollars from Morant after the incident. “The first thing we got was a 20 million dollar demand. This is a shake down,” he said. The boy’s mother has a history of filing lawsuits that have eventually been dismissed, court records show, including a discrimination lawsuit against the city’s fire department and a lawsuit against her children’s school district after she said they were bullied on a school bus.
> The police report does not name Morant’s “best friend,” who the boy said had punched him on the other side of the jaw. But a person familiar with the lawsuit, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because it was under seal, said the friend was Pack, a childhood friend of Morant’s who is also named in the family’s lawsuit. Pack could not be reached for comment.
> Pack shouted expletives at Pacers players, the Athletic reported, until an official intervened and Pack was escorted off the floor. Later that night, the Athletic reported, the altercation continued outside the arena, where members of Morant’s entourage confronted members of the Pacers near the team’s bus. After Morant got into an SUV, a red laser was trained at members of the team from inside the car, the Athletic reported, prompting a member of the Pacers’ security team to say, “That’s 100 percent a gun.”
Bro thinks he’s Marlo Stanfield
The spirit of Gilbert Arenas lives on.
why did mods delete the one posted earlier with 100 comments and left this one up?
The kid told Ja “I am the West!”.
Listen, this is just so stupid by Ja. I’m not saying the other guy is blameless, or that he didn’t start it. But why the fuck are you even dicking around getting into an altercation with a 17 year old anyway? Nobody cares how tough you are Ja. Your job is to play basketball, he needs to grow up quick.
Why does he want to live that life so badly
I mean, where there’s smoke there’s fire and based on Ja’s antics on and off social media recently I really don’t find any of this hard to believe. There’s too many instances of this to strike it up to just rumors.
Dude needs to straighten up fast before he gets tough with the wrong person.
Why was Temetrius so pressed, is he or isn’t he about that life?
That 17 year old boy? Jayson Tatum.
will this actually have any dent on his career aside from a minority of basketball fans disliking him
Regardless of whether you think Ja had some justification for his actions/words in either incident, he’s stupid for putting himself in these situations. And the more he responds in these types of ways, the more people are going to try him. He needs to practice self control. You have way more to lose than your friends or any of these random people do. Grizzlies need to sit his ass down and have a hard discussion with him about maturity. I’m tired of these stories, and I love Ja. I’m usually the one having to defend him on this sub.
Shannon Sharpe’s comments aging like fine wine
Silver is spineless.
Stern had his own issues but he wouldn’t put up with this bullshit.
Denouncing Stern’s faults doesn’t save Silver from criticism on inaction.
Jail Morant
Legality aside is it really that hard to not be an asshole?
I thought it would be Dillion Brooks that would sink the grizzlies but it might be the RICO Act
What an idiot. You’re an NBA superstar wtf are you doing
Dude is entering his mid-20s as a millionaire with a straightforward path to hundreds of millions of dollars and he’s repeatedly out there acting like some teenage banger with no options. I really hope someone can get in his ear and guide him in the right direction because it seems like he’s surrounded by poor influences. Man needs to get in touch with Kareem or The Admiral.
Imagine Ja playing in OKC or SLC
Just in time to take the heat off Trae
Ja or someone from his group is gonna test the wrong person one day and it won’t end well.
This gun culture shit is so fucking dangerous and STUPID.
Brandon Miller to be drafted by the Grizzlies so he can assist Temetrius?
Really curious how the league handles this.
I’m starting to think there’s a collective 3 brain cells on the grizz
What a fucking loser lol
Genuinely what is wrong with this man? Who cares how “hard” you are? You make millions playing basketball and you have nothing to prove. Truly a bozo
Whatta ya know. More shithead behavior from the biggest shithead man-baby in the NBA