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According to a police report, Memphis Grizzlies point guard Ja Morant is charged with hitting a teen repeatedly and flashing a gun at him.
Morant has been charged with hitting a 17-year-old in the head during a basketball game at his Memphis home in July 2022, according to the police report, which refers to the same event that resulted in a lawsuit being filed against Morant last month. A “large knot” was left on the youngster’s head, according to the boy, who told police that the NBA player and one of his pals had punched him so hard that they had knocked him to the ground. The adolescent told authorities in interviews that after the incident, Morant walked into his house and then came out threatening him with a gun in his waistband.
The boy claimed that Morant tossed the ball at him hard during the pick-up basketball game, so he threw the ball back just as hard. The teen claimed that the altercation between them began when the ball “slipped through [his] hands” and hit Morant on the chin. “Do I do it to him?” When Morant questioned a buddy, the guy responded, “Yeah, do it.”
The teen said Morant punched him in the jaw, while his friend punched him from the other side. “I fell to the ground, trying to cover my face, so I wouldn’t get hit in the face,” the 17-year-old told police. “I got, started getting hit, punched in my head, everything else. … Ja hit me like 12 to 13 times.” While the boy said Morant did not aim the gun at him when he “came outside with his gun,” he did allegedly place his hand on it. “His dad was yelling at him, like: ‘No, no, no. Go back. Go back in the house,’” the boy claimed.
The teen’s mother reported the incident to the police and rushed him to the hospital after the altercation. In police interviews, Morant has asserted that he acted in self-defense and that the teen had thrown the ball at his head before moving closer to him. He stated he “swung first” and that “the ball was the first swing to me,” but added that he felt the need to “protect” himself from the teenager. Morant’s companions claimed in sworn statements from a number of witnesses that the child purposefully threw the ball at the Grizzlies player and “squared up” after the encounter. None of them said he came outside with a gun after Morant hit him or disputed it.
In another section of the police report, Morant was charged with threatening the mall security director in Memphis after his mother got into an argument with a Finish Line employee. After engaging in a verbal altercation with the employee, she called Morant, and he allegedly turned up later with an entourage of about nine other people. He refused to leave the Memphis mall’s parking lot when approached by the director of mall security, and police were called to the situation.