Ja Morant has once again found himself in the crosshairs of the NBA.
The league announced on Sunday that they have fined the Memphis Grizzlies star Morant $25,000. Morant’s infraction was throwing a ball into the stands during Friday’s game against the New York Knicks.
At the end of the third quarter of that game, Morant got a defensive rebound and fired a halfhearted shot attempt at the other basket after the buzzer had sounded. While the available video angles did not show where the ball actually landed, it appeared that the ball definitely overshot the basket by a good amount.
Here is the footage.
We know that the NBA has zero tolerance for intentionally throwing or kicking a ball into the stands during a game (in fact, another star player was just fined for the same reason earlier in the week). But end-of-quarter heaves (many of them unserious) are very common in the league, so it is a little strange to see a fine for a such an attempt. Perhaps Morant’s heave, which did occur with triple zeroes on the clock, was so bad that it couldn’t remotely be considered a good-faith shot attempt.
The two-time NBA All-Star Morant has mostly stayed out of trouble off the court this season. But he still losing money at a ridiculous rate, whether it is picking up bizarre technical fouls (which also come with fines of at least $2,000) or getting a massive amount of property stolen from his house in a burglary.
