Miami – Ja Morant showed an imaginary gun. The NBA responded with a real fine.
A day after Morant once again used his gesture of apothing tip to celebrate the manufacture of triples, the Grizzlies star received a fine of $ 75,000 for the league on Friday. It is the second time this week that Morant, who was suspended twice in 2023 for incidents with real weapons, heard the league about imitating the act of using a gun for a game.
The League described the “inappropriate” gesture, adding that “the League office previously warned of Morant that this gesture could be interpreted negatively.”
The first interaction with the League office resulted in that warning, after friend Hield de Morant and Golden State made the gesture to each other during a Grizzlies-Warriors game on Tuesday. The warning of the League office was obviously ignored, since Morant made similar gestures in Thursday’s game.
The NBA said it happened twice, although it seemed to have happened after the three of the triples. The third instance was not shown in the TNT transmission of the game.
Morant and other members of the Grizzlies have used the gesture of weapons on numerous occasions this season, even during Thursday night in Miami. Morant made a triple in the first quarter of that game, then turned to the Memphis bank with his completely widespread left arm, his right thumb pointed in the air and his index and intermediate fingers pressed.
The other gestures were similar, again directed towards Memphis teammates.
The two suspensions in 2023 cost Morant 33 games and around $ 8.3 million in salary. The first was a prohibition of eight games for the live broadcast of a video in which he showed a firearm while in a state intoxicated in a nightclub in the Denver area.
The other was a prohibition of 25 games after posing with a firearm in a car during another live broadcast video, when the League said that Morant “exercised the firearm while knowing that it was being recorded and that the recording was being broadcast live on Instagram Live, despite having made commitments to the NBA and the public statements that it would not repeat the behavior of which it was disciplined above.”
He was asked on Thursday, after he was winning the winning game in the bell to lift Memphis about Miami, about criticism, Morant said he is “very conscious” of what is said about him.
“I’m a bit used to it,” Morant said. “I was practically a villain for two years. Every little thing, if someone can say something negative about me, he will be out there. Then, yes. I don’t care more.”
The Grizzlies next play on Detroit.
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