Ja Morant will be allowed to practice and travel with the Memphis Grizzlies while serving his 25-game suspension for conduct detrimental to the league.
“I think it’s great for Ja, and I think it’s great for the group that he can be with us day to day,” Grizzlies general manager Zach Kleiman said during the team’s media day Monday. “The NBA basically has said that as long as Ja continues to stay on track, he’s going to be clear to participate in all private team activities, so practices, shootarounds, traveling with the team. He’s not going to be with us obviously for preseason games and the first 25, but we’ll see him out there and we can’t wait to have him back Game 26.”
Morant was suspended for posing with a handgun in a live-streamed video on May 13, less than two months after he was suspended eight games for displaying a handgun in an intoxicated state on a live-steamed video from a Denver nightclub.
Morant is entering the first year of a five-year, $197 million maximum contract.
Kleiman declined to say whether the Grizzlies would take any extra measures to attempt to help Morant avoid another incident at a nightclub, saying he intends to keep those discussions “internal.”
“I would again just say I think he’s taken meaningful, positive, healthy steps in the right direction,” Kleiman said. “We’re going to continue to give him the structure to be able to follow through on that.”
