Earlier this week, Ja Morant was seen in a viral social media post, allegedly holding a gun.
Following the video, the Memphis Grizzlies announced that the superstar point guard had been “suspended from all team activities.”
The 23-year-old was suspended from all team activities on Sunday after he flashed what appeared to be a pistol on Instagram Live, just two months after he served an eight-game suspension for a similar incident.
“I know I’ve disappointed a lot of people who have supported me. This is a journey and I recognize there is more work to do,”
Morant said in a statement released on Tuesday.
“My words may not mean much right now, but I take full accountability for my actions. I’m committed to continuing to work on myself.”
Speaking at the NBA Draft Lottery on Tuesday night, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said he was “shocked” by the latest video.
“We talked directly about the consequences first,” Sliver said at the NBA Draft Lottery in Chicago. “We were very focused on the misconduct that was in front of us at the time. Frankly, most of our conversation was about how incredibly serious the first incident was of waving a firearm on social media.”
At this time, Silver says that the league is investigating the incident and will decide on a punishment once the investigation is complete.
Given that this is Morant’s second offense, there is some speculation that Morant’s suspension could be in the neighborhood of 20 games, which would be about a quarter of the season.
It’s the second time In less than three months that Morant was seen on Instagram holding what appeared to be a weapon. The first led to the eight-game suspension that was handed down in March and cost Morant about $669,000 in salary.
This time, the suspension could be much longer and much more costly. The second video was captured Saturday night and widely shared online.
It was streamed on the Instagram account of Morant associate Davonte Pack.
The video streamed by Pack shows Morant in the passenger seat of a vehicle, briefly appearing to display a handgun. At the very brief moment — maybe less than a second — when Morant is shown holding what appears to be a weapon as he sits in the passenger seat of a vehicle, the livestream had 111 viewers.
