Grizzlies player Ja Morant is no victim

Wednesday after meeting NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, Memphis Grizzlies point guard Ja Moran was suspended for eight matches by the league for conduct detrimental to the league.

That press release, the NBA concluded that the gun Morant flashed in an IG Live on March 4 belonged to an acquaintance, and therefore could not prove that he carried it on the team vehicles or facilities.

Here’s the kicker. When Morant returns from a treatment facility in Florida, his suspension will likely end because the league will count the time he missed. As of Wednesday, Morant had already missed five games since being suspended two games by the Grizzlies before voluntarily leaving following the March 4 video. It wouldn’t be entirely surprising if he returned after his eighth away game, in a home game. against the Dallas Mavericks.

And not Morant a victim

Despite Morant’s attempts to seek treatment for his “unhealthy reactions to stress,” he is not a victim in this. The handgun he strutted with during the strip club’s IG Live was simply the last straw in Morant’s series of events.

Morant allegedly hit a teenager after a heated basketball game and allegedly threatened him with flashing lights a Glock. (Morant told police he hit the boy in self-defense, and his agent said in a statement that Morant he had no firearm during the event in question.)

He also reportedly rolled into a high school volleyball game with his crew to confront another teenage girl. who spoke cheekily of his sister. (No charges were brought).

Following the Jan. 29 home game against the Indiana Pacers player and team safety reported a slow-moving SVU with Morant-trained red lasers from weapons as he drove past them. A Pacers security guard told The Athletic, “It’s 100 percent a gun.”

“We felt we were in serious danger,” said one attendee.

The incident was serious enough for the NBA to investigate.

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Ja Morant’s journey from an unknown mid-major starter to one of the NBA’s preeminent point guards has been a meteoric rise. What he never realized during his rise, however, was that his newfound fame brought with it a higher level of scrutiny, standards of behavior and propriety.

If anything, the NBA let Moran go with ease.