Rising NBA superstar Ja Morant could be in trouble with the law after a 17-year-old accused the Memphis Grizzlies player of punching him 12 to 13 times during a pickup basketball game that was taking place in 23-year-old Morant’s house in Tennessee in July last year.
According to a report in The Washington Post, which quotes interviews conducted by Shelby County Sheriff’s Office detectives, the teenager has told the officials that after an altercation during the game went out of hand, Morant went into his house after hitting him and came back out with a “gun visible in the waistband of his pants and his hand on the weapon.” The report also added that the teenager had a “large knot” on the side of his head where he claimed that Morant had hit him.
TMZ had reported that the teenager had sued Morant, who is the No 2 overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft and a two-time All-Star.
In another incident reported by the newspaper, a mall security guard told authorities that Morant “threatened” him during an altercation in a parking lot of the mall. He also claimed that a member of Morant’s entourage “shoved him in the head”. The parking lot incident allegedly happened four days before the incident with the teenager.
When quizzed by the police, Morant did admit to hitting the teenager but reportedly told them that he had acted in self-defence. He claimed that the teenager had thrown a ball at him and then stepped toward him.
The two incidents are the latest in a string of troubling reports surrounding Morant. Last month, the league investigated claims by the Indiana Pacers that Morant’s entourage had “aggressively confronted” members of Pacers traveling party and threatened them by pointing a red laser at them, possibly attached to a gun.