Memphis Grizzlies All-Star Ja Morant, who is serving a 25-game suspension for detrimental conduct, appeared in court on Monday and testified in the civil case brought against him by Joshua Holloway.
Rebecca Adelman, Holloway’s lawyer, brought a basketball to court to use in demonstrations and showed clips of Morant’s dunking ability to show the force he directed at her client.
Pickup Basketball Beef
In July 2022, a then-17-year-old Holloway was playing in a pickup basketball game at Morant’s home.
The play led to an argument and escalated into a physical altercation, where Holloway said he was jumped and hit several times by Morant and Morant’s friend Davonte Pack.
Morant testified in court on Monday that the punch was in self defense.
In his testimony Morant said during the altercation, after Holloway threw a basketball at his face, he asked Holloway, “What you on?” Then, Morant said, Holloway didn’t reply but instead pulled up his shorts.
“Him pulling up his shorts, where I’m from, that’s a fighting stance,” Morant said.
Morant said Holloway took a step toward him and that he then stepped forward and punched Holloway.
“I hit him first, to protect myself,” Morant said.
It was after that blow, that Pack came in and punched Holloway sending him to the floor.
The hearing is expected to last through Wednesday, when there will be testimony from Pack, other witnesses at the game, Morant’s mother Jamie, and continued testimony from Morant’s father, Tee, who began his testimony on Monday.
According to Tee’s testimony, Ja frequently held pickup games at his house and that the one in question was “highly competitive,” with Morant and Holloway guarding each other and talking trash to one another.
This case has dragged on for over a year, and Ja Morant’s lawyers are hoping to get the case dismissed with a self-defense claim, while Adelman is hoping for some restitution for her client.
Stay tuned.
Morant’s Return Is Imminent
Meanwhile, Morant has four games left on his suspension and is eligible to return to the court on Dec. 19, when the Grizzlies are in New Orleans to take on the Pelicans.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver was asked about Morant’s return last weekend at the In-Season Tournament in Las Vegas and said he plans to connect with him before his return to the court.
“We together laid out a program for him over the last several weeks, and to the best of my knowledge, he’s complied with everything he’s been asked to do,” Silver said. “We’re going to talk directly once, at least this week, before he comes back, [and] I think we’ll review the program and just make sure the conditions are in place for him to be successful going forward.”
Including the pickup basketball incident, Morant was involved in at least four separate incidents over the past 18 months involving flashing guns on social media and him and his friends threatening a local Memphis mall employee.
