The cutoff T-shirt came off, the protective face mask strapped on, and with 3:05 to play in the first quarter of Memphis’s game against Houston on Wednesday, Ja Morant was a Grizzly again. Some 18 days after Morant was exiled—and, ultimately, suspended—for brandishing a gun at a Denver nightclub, he was back on the FedEx Forum floor. Fans in dark-blue Morant jerseys sprinkled the arena. Poster boards with WELCOME BACK JA were visible in the lower bowl. Sitting courtside, Tee Morant, Ja’s father, wore a hoodie with his son’s likeness under the word REDEMPTION.
It was a scripted moment, but frankly everything with Ja Morant’s return has been. There was the PR-shaped statement. The brief stop at a counseling program in Florida. The friendly interview with a former player. No one dismisses the significance of a potential mental health issue, but Morant has run the crisis playbook navigating it.
On Wednesday, Morant came off the bench, a decision that was his, we were told, because he didn’t want to disrupt the team’s recent chemistry—the Grizzlies are 6–3 since Morant went out. “Leadership,” the local broadcast called it. Never mind that Memphis went 20–5 without Morant last season, and he started every game he played in.
