Ja Morant is one of the NBA’s best up and coming players. In his four year career with the Memphis Grizzlies, he has been awarded the Rookie of the Year and Most Improved Player awards. He has also been named to the NBA All-Rookie Team, All-NBA Second Team and the NBA All-Star Game twice. In addition, Morant has also led his team to the playoffs the last three seasons. But while Morant has been doing great things on the court, his actions off the court have been questionable to say the least.

The first problematic incident involving Morant occurred on January 29th when the Grizzlies played the Indiana Pacers. The Pacers filed an incident report on February 5th stating “Following a game between the Indiana Pacers and Memphis Grizzlies on Jan. 29 in Memphis, acquaintances of Grizzlies star Ja Morant aggressively confronted members of the Pacers traveling party near the team’s bus in the loading area of FedExForum, and later someone in a slow-moving SUV — which Morant was riding in — trained a red laser on them.” Members of the Pacers security staff believed that it was attached to a gun and was meant to threaten them. No Police report was filed for this incident due to the fact that no one could prove that the red light was in fact attached to a firearm.

Less than a month later, The Washington Post released a story about two separate police reports that were filed against Morant because of incidents that occurred during the previous summer. The first of the two reports gave information about an incident involving a teenager that played a pickup game at Morant’s house. The two reportedly got into a dispute during the game and at one point during the altercation Morant threw a punch at the teen. The report also suggests that Morant threatened him with a gun that was tucked into his pants. Morant has since claimed that these actions were out of self defense. He told police that the teenager left his property yelling “I’m gonna come back and light this place up like fireworks.”

The second of the two police reports gave information regarding Morant’s mother at a Finish Line at a local mall. Morant’s mother reportedly got into a dispute with a store employee. She then proceeded to call her son who showed up by her side with nine other men. Morant’s acquaintances supposedly tried to intimidate the security guard and threatened his safety when he got off work.

The final controversial incident that Morant was involved in happened on March 4th. After a loss to the Denver Nuggets, Morant went to a nightclub. In the early hours of the morning he went on instagram live and flashed a gun on camera for all of his followers to see. This event caused the NBA to launch an investigation. Later in the day, Morant released a statement saying that he was going to take time away from basketball to receive help and learn how to deal with his stress better. 

Even with all the controversy surrounding Ja Morant’s name right now, he is still one of the biggest stars in the league right now. If he is able to find help for himself off the court, he will continue to build on an exceptional career on the court.