Ja Morant entered a counseling program this week amid his ongoing absence from the Memphis Grizzlies.
The 23-year-old made headlines early last week following a situation where he appeared to brandish a gun following a night of partying.
Dancers who were there that evening painted an unfortunate picture of his behavior.
In the aftermath, largely in response to the criticism and fallout from that incident, Morant deleted all his social media accounts and went radio silent publicly.
This week NBA insider Marc Spears appeared on the ‘Hoop Collective’ podcast and revealed that Morant’s personal issues actually go a lot deeper than anyone originally realized.
“There’s things I’m hearing that I’d rather probably not say on this podcast, but I hope he’s taking care of him of himself… My guess now is that he doesn’t play the rest of the season.”
— Marc Spears on the Hoop Collective Podcast last week.pic.twitter.com/tqfkpIhWqf
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) March 14, 2023
“I think there’s a lot going on,” Spears said.
“My prayers to him, that he figures it out. There’s things I’m hearing that I’d rather probably not say on this podcast, but I hope he’s taking care of himself.
“I’m not really worried about the basketball part for him right now. I’m worried about the human part. … My guess now is — not that you’d bet on this — that he doesn’t play the rest of the season as he takes care of himself.”
Turner NBA insider, Taylor Rooks, who knows Morant well and has even partied with him, suggested something similar on Monday evening.
Have been speaking with Ja throughout this & it’s really great to see he’s working through being better in counseling. Last week he texted me this clip we did in 2021 and we talked about the need to take care of yourself.
Passing along that he sees the support and is thankful. https://t.co/tUp0zGnZjc— Taylor Rooks (@TaylorRooks) March 14, 2023
It seems like the consensus among those that know Morant is that he is working through something very real and very serious.
Until someone actually vocalizes what that ‘something’ is publicly, obviously fans will only be able to speculate. But based on tones and reading between the lines, it seems like whatever the problem is it is severe enough to warrant this sort of conversation.
The Grizzlies laid out a very specific series of conditions that needed to be met before Morant would be permitted to return to the team.
The Denver Broncos’ quarterback situation is looking promising. https://t.co/gIlrUoFQ1C
— Game 7 (@game7__) March 14, 2023
Whether counseling was one of those conditions remains unclear.
One way or the other, it genuinely seems like Morant is working through something big here.
Time will tell if that issue or those issues ever end up going public.
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A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
