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It’s been a very turbulent couple of years for Ja Morant, who has been at the center of a number of off-the-court incidents that have overshadowed his performance on it. That includes an altercation that led to the Grizzlies star ending up on the receiving end of a lawsuit, although he got some good news on that particular front this week.
All eyes were on Ja Morant when he made his grand return to the Memphis Grizzlies in December after serving the 25-game suspension he received from the NBA for flashing a gun on social media for the second time in a two-month span in 2023. Unfortunately, he only appeared in a grand total of nine games before succumbing to a season-ending shoulder injury.
His ill-advised decision to flash those firearms came in the wake of a stream of incidents the Grizzlies (as well as police in Memphis) have been accused of trying to cover up to protect the man who injected some much-needed electricity into the franchise and the city it calls home, including an altercation at a mall and another at the high school his sister attended.
There was also the situation that unfolded at Morant’s house in 2022 involving a 17-year-old who claimed the high-flying guard punched him in the face after tempers started to flair during a pickup game. Joshua Holloway, the alleged victim, eventually filed a lawsuit centering around those allegations, and it’s slowly been working its way through the legal system.
In December, Morant took the stand during a hearing and admitted to throwing the first punch but argued he was acting in self-defense, saying Holloway had forcefully tossed a basketball at his face and made a threatening gesture before the blow was delivered.
According to ESPN, the magistrate overseeing the case seems to think Morant was telling the truth, as a filing that was released in Shelby County Court on Monday shows Judge Carol Chumney ruled he “enjoys a presumption of civil immunity” because she came to the conclusion the punch in question was, in fact, an act of self-defense against the teenager.
The outlet notes the case is still slated to go to trial at some point in the coming months, but Morant is in a much better position than he was now before that the burden of proof has shifted to Holloway’s legal team, which is now tasked with successfully convincing a jury the punch wasn’t justified.