DENVER — The NBA’s investigation into Ja Morant is nearly complete, and a decision on further punishment for the Grizzlies star who appears to use a gun on social media for a second time will be announced shortly after the conclusion of the NBA Finals, Adam Silver said.
“We’ve uncovered a fair amount of additional information… and we probably could have,” said Silver, the league’s commissioner, during his annual session with reporters before Game 1 of the Finals.
Silver said he decided, with the approval of the Major League Players Association, to withhold advertising that the Nuggets-Heat series would not be blacked out. He noted that Morant, 23, and a two-time All-Star, had already been suspended by the Grizzlies, so “nothing changed anyway over the next few weeks.”
“We’re looking at both the past act history, but then we’re looking at the single player history as well,” Silver said. “This and the seriousness of course behavior.”
On or around May 14, two weeks after the Grizzlies were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, Morant appeared in a video in which he was riding in an SUV with several people, listening, dancing, and singing along to rapping. music.
A camera was catching the situation on Instagram Live, and in the briefest moments on the video, Morant appeared to be holding a gun in his left hand. Morant was suspended for eight games in March for carrying a gun at a Denver-area nightclub, in an incident posted on his IG Live account.
Silver and Morant met at the league’s New York office after the suspension was imposed.
“I think he understood that it wasn’t about his words – it was going to be about his future behaviour,” Silver said. “I don’t think we know yet what it will take to change his behavior. I’ll say the same thing I said at the time. He seems like a good guy. I think he’s clearly made some mistakes – but he’s a guy.
“I hope now, once we conclude at the end of our process what discipline is appropriate, that it’s not just about discipline,” Silver said. “Now it’s about what we, the players’ union, his team and the people around him are going to do to create better conditions going forward.”
In 2009, Gilbert Arenas, then playing for the Washington Wizards, brought unloaded weapons into the locker room after a hot tag game. The NBA, under Commissioner David Stern, has suspended 50 games.
The NBA has never found Morant to have taken a gun onto team property.
(Photo: Patrick T Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)