It has been almost three weeks since a second incident involving Ja Morant showing a fire arm on social media occurred. Since that occurrence, Morant has been suspended from all Grizzlies team activities as the offseason begins. However, as the days and now weeks have passed, many have waited for the next major development involving Morant and the Grizzlies, which is the likely suspension of Morant to start next season.
It seemed logical that an official statement from the league would be released over the past few days, but no news came from the NBA. However, now on the evening of Game 1 of the NBA Finals begins, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver shed a bit more light on the current status of Morant’s potential suspension:
As can be seen from Tim MacMahon’s references to Adam Silver’s comments above, Silver seems to indicate the NBA is to the point to where it can quickly wrap up the investigation to make an official announcement. However, Silver indicates that the time to do that will not occur until after the NBA Finals.
While Morant’s suspension announcement being delayed is the main takeaway from Silver’s comments, the fact that he also references “a fair amount of additional information” has been found during the NBA’s investigation is significant. Those details, along with Silver’s comment on Morant’s behavior changing, may indicate that the additional information the NBA found is not an encouraging development.
Though Silver did not provide much specific detail, at the very least the Grizzlies franchise and fan base now have a time line of when to expect an official announcement on how long Morant’s likely suspension next year will be. Furthermore, and unfortunately, logic continues to indicate that the likely suspension will keep Morant off the court for an extended period of time to start next season.