Adam Silver: NBA to announce latest Ja Morant decision after Finals

DENVER (AP)— The latest sanctions, if any, that the NBA plans to levyagainstMemphisguard Ja Morantfor his second instance of displaying agun on social media will be announced shortly after the finals,Commissioner Adam Silver said Thursday.

Silver didnot say what the penalties were, not even saying if Morant would beavailable at the start of next season. Morant was suspended foreight games by the NBA in March for an incident where he broadcasthimself on Instagramdisplayinga gun in a suburban Denver club, and wassuspendedby the Grizzlies last monthafter another video showedMorant displaying what appeared to be a gun yet again.

Silver saidthe league has discovered more information during its currentinvestigation, but the decision was made to not have the next roundof Morant news overshadow the NBA Finals.

“Weprobably could have brought it to a head now, but we made thedecision — and I believe the players’ association agrees with us —that it would be unfair to these players and these teams, in themiddle of this series, to announce the results of thatinvestigation,” Silver said.

The firstsuspension cost Morant about $669,000 in salary. The secondincident was streamed on the Instagram account of Morant associateDavonte Pack. The video shows Morant in the passenger seat of avehicle, briefly appearing to display a handgun. At the very briefmoment — maybe less than a second — when Morant is shown holdingwhat appears to be a weapon, the livestream had 111 viewers.

“Inassessing what discipline is appropriate, if that’s the case, welook at both the history of prior acts but then we look at theindividual player’s history as well and the seriousness, of course,of the conduct,” Silver said. “Those are all things that getfactored. It’s not an exact science. It comes down to judgment atthe end of the day on the part of me and my colleagues in theleague office.”

This willbe at least the third known NBA investigation surrounding Morantand the possible involvement of firearms so far in 2023.

Morant’sactions were investigated after a Jan. 29 incident in Memphis thathe said led to Pack — someone Morant calls “my brother” — bannedfrom Grizzlies home games for a year.

Thatincident followed a game against the Indiana Pacers; citing unnamedsources, The Indianapolis Star and USA Today reported that multiplemembers of the Pacers saw a red dot pointed at them while they werenear the loading dock where their bus was located, and The Athleticreported that a Pacers security guard believed the laser wasattached to a gun.

The NBAconfirmed that unnamed individuals were banned from the arena butsaid its investigation found no evidence that anyone was threatenedwith a weapon.

Silver saidhe’s hoping this episode sparks change for Morant.

“He seemsto be a fine young man, in terms of my dealings with him,” Silversaid. “He’s clearly made some mistakes. But he’s young and I’mhoping now, once we conclude at the end of our process, what theappropriate discipline is, that it’s not just about the discipline.It’s about now what we, the players’ association, his team, he andthe people around him around him are going to do to create bettercircumstances going forward. That’s ultimately what’s mostimportant."

COMPETITIVEBALANCE

The NBAFinals matchup no longer seems predictable months in advance, andSilver doesn’t mind that fact whatsoever.

Silver,speaking just before the start of a Denver-Miami matchup in thetitle series, said those two clubs making the finals “speaks a lotto the competitiveness in this league.” This is the league’s sixthdifferent finals matchup in the last six seasons, and ninedifferent teams have played for a title in that span.

“With justa little over a week left in the season, you had 26 teams stillcompeting for the playoffs,” Silver said in his annual pre-finalsaddress. “That’s a record.”

Denver isin the finals for the first time, and Miami is the second team toget there as a No. 8 seed — plus the first to get there afterneeding to survive the play-in tournament just to qualify for theplayoffs. It’s also a matchup of teams in the middle of the pack ofthe NBA market; Denver is No. 16 in market size, according toNielsen, while South Florida is No. 18.

“I thinkthat’s intriguing,” Silver said.

There’sbeen no shortage of examples of the same team — or two, even —making the finals on what seems like an annual basis.

GoldenState played Cleveland four consecutive times from 2015 through2018; Miami was in four consecutive finals from 2011 through 2014and played San Antonio in the last two of those years; and the LosAngeles Lakers played three consecutive finals from 2008 through2010, two of those matchups against Boston.

There wereseven teams with better odds of winning the NBA title going intothe season than Miami; there were eight with better odds thanDenver.

“Competition is great for the league,” Silver said.