There’s no timetable for Ja Morant to return to the Memphis Grizzlies, and the All-Star guard knows he’s made “difficult decisions and poor choices” that he has to be accountable for, coach Taylor Jenkins said Sunday night.
Morant was not with the team in Los Angeles for games against the Clippers on Sunday and the Lakers on Tuesday while the NBA investigates a social media post in which Morant appeared to be holding a gun.
“Very tough moment, for sure,” Jenkins said of the video.
“He understands he’s made some difficult decisions and poor choices in the past that he’s got to account for,” Jenkins said. “He’s definitely embracing the mistakes that he’s made but only time will tell. We’re going to support him and we’re going to hold him accountable to make those changes.”
Jenkins declined to outline the steps Morant needs to take to rejoin the team, saying, “We love him, we want what’s best for him, we support him. It’s going to be a difficult process but we’ve got a great group to get through this.”
He called it “an ongoing healing process.”
Morant also was the subject of a league investigation after a Jan. 29 incident in Memphis that he said led to a friend of his being banned from home games for a year. That incident occurred after a game against the Indiana Pacers. Multiple media outlets reported that members of the Pacers saw a red dot pointed at them, and a team security guard believed the laser was attached to a gun.
The NBA confirmed that unnamed individuals were banned from the arena but said its investigation found no evidence that anyone was threatened with a weapon.
Now in his fourth season with the Grizzlies, the 23-year-old two-time All-Star is the father of a young daughter. Jenkins described Morant as “a generally amazing person, great family person, a father, brother, son, member of our community.”
“My hope is that he just gets better,” Jenkins said. “He knows he’s got a lot of love and support.”
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