The Memphis Grizzlies suspended Ja Morant from all team activities on Sunday after the All-Star point guard appeared to again be holding a gun during a social media video.
Morant previously served an eight-game suspension that was handed down by the NBA for being seen holding a gun live on Instagram while at a club when Memphis was playing in Denver in early March.
In the latest video, Morant is in a vehicle and appears to have a gun in his hands while someone else filmed him and broadcast it live on Instagram.
“We are aware of the social media post involving Ja Morant and are in the process of gathering more information,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass said.
The Grizzlies said Morant is suspended “pending league review.”
The NBA suspended Morant earlier this season for “conduct detrimental to the league.”
“Ja’s conduct was irresponsible, reckless and potentially very dangerous,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement in March. “It also has serious consequences given his enormous following and influence, particularly among young fans who look up to him.”
Morant announced that he was stepping away to seek help after the first video went viral, and he later did an interview with ESPN during his suspension.
“I don’t condone any type of violence,” Morant told ESPN. “But I take full responsibility for my actions. I made a bad mistake and I can see the image that I painted over myself with my recent mistakes.
“But in the future, I’m going to show everybody who Ja really is, what I’m about and change this narrative.”
Morant was named to the All-Star team for the second straight season in 2022-23 and averaged 26.2 points while setting career highs with 8.1 assists and 5.9 rebounds per game.
Memphis went 51-31 to win the Southwest Division and earn the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference playoffs, but the Grizzlies were ousted in six games in the first round by the seventh-seeded Los Angeles Lakers.
'It wasn't scripted' – Spoelstra credits 'raw' relationship after Heat end Celtics' history bid
Erik Spoelstra hailed the "intimate" and "raw" relationships within the Miami Heat's roster after his team overcame the Boston Celtics to reach the NBA Finals.
The Heat had squandered a 3-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals, but Game 7 went their way in emphatic fashion.
Jimmy Butler led Miami with 28 points as the Heat won 103-84, ending the Celtics' bid at history in the process.
Boston was aiming to become the first team to win a seven-game series after losing the opening three encounters, but it was not to be.
"It wasn't scripted," Spoelstra told reporters.
"When you have such an intimate relationship with a locker room and they have it with each other, the staff has it with them, they have it with the staff, sometimes it's just whatever's raw, whatever's real at that time.
"Professional sports is just kind of a reflection sometimes of life, that things don't always go your way.
"The inevitable setbacks happen and it's how you deal with that collectively. There's a lot of different ways that it can go. It can sap your spirit. It can take a team down for whatever reason.
"With this group, it's steeled us and made us closer and made us tougher.
"These are lessons that hopefully we can pass along to our children, that you can develop this fortitude.
"Sometimes you have to suffer for the things that you want. Game 6, the only thing that we can do is sometimes you have to laugh at the things that make you cry."
The Heat are only the second No. 8 seed in NBA history to make the Finals, after the 1999 New York Knicks.
Butler was named the Eastern Conference finals MVP, and has full confidence the Heat can go all the way against the Denver Nuggets.
"I just know why coach Pat [Riley] and coach Spoelstra wanted me to be here," Butler said. "That's to compete at a high level and to win championships.
"I know that the group that they put around me at all times is going to give me an opportunity to do so.
"I know the work that we all put into it, so I know what we're capable of. Nobody is satisfied. We haven't done anything. We don't play just to win the Eastern Conference; we play to win the whole thing."
Spoelstra reserved special praise for the Heat's talisman.
"There's no way to quantify the confidence that he can instil in everybody. Jimmy has never had to apologise," Spoelstra said of Butler.
"I don't want him to ever apologise for who he is and how he approaches competition. It's intense. It's not for everybody, and we're not for everybody.
"That's why we think it's like an incredible marriage. We never judge him on that. He doesn't judge us for how crazy we get. It's the same language. But the confidence level that he can create for everybody on the roster is incredible.
"He's gnarly, but he knows how to have a soft touch to give somebody some confidence at the right time. That's the special gift that he has."
Heat advance to NBA Finals, foil Celtics' bid at history
Jimmy Butler backed up his bold guarantee and the Miami Heat bounced back to prevent the Boston Celtics from making history.
Butler led all players with 28 points as the Heat advanced to the NBA Finals for the second time in four years with a 103-84 rout of the Celtics in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals on Monday night.
Miami went ahead late in the first quarter and never looked back en route to joining the 1999 New York Knicks as the only No. 8 seeds in a conference to reach the NBA Finals. The Heat will meet the Western Conference champion Nuggets with Game 1 to be held Thursday in Denver.
The Heat also denied Boston from becoming the first team in league history to win a seven-game series after losing the first three contests, as well as make Butler's claim after Game 5 that Miami would win the series a reality.
Boston had forced Monday's winner-take-all matchup with a dramatic Game 6 victory in Miami on Saturday, with Derrick White's buzzer-beating tip-in giving the Celtics a 104-103 win and extending the series.
The Celtics could never muster a comeback in Game 7, however, as Miami built a 27-15 lead early in the second quarter and took a 52-41 advantage into half-time.
Boston got the deficit to within seven late in the third quarter before Caleb Martin scored the first eight points of a 12-2 Heat run that put Miami up 83-66 with 10 minutes remaining.
Martin finished with 26 points and 10 rebounds for Miami, which went 14 of 28 from 3-point range while the Celtics shot just 21.4 per cent from beyond the arc. Butler was named the Eastern Conference Finals MVP and received the Larry Bird Trophy, named in honour of the former Celtics great.
Jaylen Brown led Boston with 19 points but went 8 of 23 from the field, while All-Star Jayson Tatum was held to 14 points after playing through a sore ankle he injured early in the contest.
New NBL season to feature 10 teams, to be launched on Wednesday
The National Basketball League (NBL) is set to make its long-awaited return from a two-year break, with one of the main features of the upcoming season being a partnership between Jamaica Basketball Association (JABA) and the Ministry of National Security, to use the sport as a way of influencing troubled communities and schools, to reduce violence.
Some 10 teams led by defending champions St George’s Slayers are down to contest the season and players and coaches have expressed their delight about the return of the country’s top league on the basketball calendar, following the COVID-induced break.
This season will be launched on Wednesday May 31, at the Sports Development Foundation (SDF) starting at 2:00 pm.
The league is expected to be played over four months and will showcase some of the best local-based talent and aspiring national payers, who will parade their skills in the presence of national coaches. An all-star NBL team will also be selected mid-season to play against the visiting University of Missouri NCAA team, during the summer.
Games will be played primarily at the National Stadium Courts, while select games will be hosted in Montego Bay and other approved venues. Teams will vie for cash prizes and other incentives provided by sponsors and partners.
Confirmed teams are, St Georges Slayers (Defending Champions), UWI Runnin rebels, Rae Town Raptors, Urban Knights, Upper Room Eagles, Tivoli Wizards, Falmouth Saints, Central Celtics, Spanish Town Spartans and Portmore Flames
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