Ja Morant allegedly got into an altercation with a minor while playing basketball at his house last year, and some body camera footage related to the incident has now surfaced.
Police in Memphis, Tenn., were dispatched to a home on July 26 after a 17-year-old said Morant and some of Morant’s friends assaulted him at the Grizzlies star’s home. The teenager told officers Morant and others “jumped me” after he and Morant were “talking trash to each other.”
The 17-year-old demonstrated how Morant supposedly threw the ball at him “as hard as he can.” The alleged victim claimed he caught the ball and threw it at Morant, at which point the minor says Morant got in his face and hit him. The teenager said he tried to fight back but Morant’s friend then hit him in the face and caused him to fall, at which point several people began hitting him while he was on the ground.
One of the officers observed that the 17-year-old had “a big old goose egg on the back of his head.” The officers then left and seemed like they were in disbelief that they might have to go arrest Morant. You can see the body cam footage below:
“Are we about to go arrest Ja Morant?”
The police body cam footage from Ja Morant’s encounter with a 17 year old pic.twitter.com/JUCtlzk6EY
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) April 8, 2023
TMZ had previously obtained a copy of the incident report, which matches up with what the teenager said in the body camera video. Morant was never arrested, however. Police investigated the case for a month before handing it over to the district attorney’s office, which declined to prosecute.
Morant is now facing a lawsuit over the alleged incident.
Morant, 23, recently served a suspension for a separate off-court issue. The Grizzlies have secured the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference with one game remaining in the regular season.
