SI:AM | Ja Morant Needs to Get His Act Together

There’s so much at stake for the rising Grizzlies star.

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. Are you ready for March Madness to start in earnest this week?

In today’s SI:AM:

???? A wake-up call for Ja Morant

???? The Giants’ negotiations with Daniel Jones

????️‍♂️ A first-time winner at Bay Hill

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Ja Morant’s off-court troubles

The Grizzlies’ season is headed off the rails. At a time when conversation about the team should be centered on how far it can advance in the Western Conference playoffs, instead the main narrative regards the off-court behavior of Memphis’s best player, Ja Morant.

Morant will be away from the team for at least two games as the NBA investigates an incident from early Saturday morning in which Morant appeared to flash a handgun while streaming live on Instagram.

That comes after a Washington Post article last week that contained other concerning allegations about Morant. According to the Post, a security guard at a Memphis mall told police that Morant threatened him and that an associate of Morant’s shoved him. Four days later, Morant allegedly punched a 17-year-old repeatedly after a dispute during a pickup basketball game. The teenager told police that Morant hit him “12 or 13 times” and that Morant went into his house and returned with a gun in his waistband. Last month, The Athletic reported the NBA was investigating an incident in which someone in a car Morant was riding in pointed a red laser at members of the Pacers’ traveling party. At least one Pacers employee believed the laser was attached to a gun.

Morant was absent for last night’s game against the Clippers, a 135–129 loss, and Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins said before the game he did not know how long Morant would be sidelined.

“We take it very seriously,” Jenkins said. “There are two elements to this I want to make very clear. There’s a supportive element, someone that’s got to get better and needs some help. And then also there’s accountability with the team that we got to stand for.”

This time last year, Morant and the Grizzlies were one of the best stories in the NBA. He was enjoying a breakout season, while Memphis took a major leap to become one of the top teams in the West. But the trajectory of Morant’s off-court behavior suggests he is at risk not only of derailing the Grizzlies’ season but his NBA career, Chris Mannix writes:

There’s a narrative forming that Morant’s problems will be resolved if he exiles some of the people around him.

Maybe. But this is on Morant. His life. His choices. His future. On the court Morant has a Hall of Fame trajectory. He’s a billion-dollar athlete in waiting with a chance to win championships for years to come. His fiercest opponent right now isn’t Denver or Los Angeles, Boston or Milwaukee. It’s him.

Morant is 23. Plenty of 23-year-olds have made stupid decisions. But the stakes are higher for Morant, who, as Mannix points out, could become the face of the NBA someday. The Grizzlies are a team with a lot of potential, but unless Morant’s actions change, it’ll be wasted.

The best of Sports Illustrated

• Albert Breer has the latest on the Giants’ negotiations with Daniel Jones ahead of Tuesday’s franchise tag deadline.
• Bob Harig was at the Bay Hill Club for the Arnold Palmer Invitational, where Bryson DeChambeau’s former caddie Tim Tucker led Kurt Kitayama to his first PGA Tour win.
• Chris Mannix has a Q&A with Michael B. Jordan about his directorial debut, Creed III.
• The South Carolina women are rolling into the NCAA tournament undefeated after winning the SEC tournament.
• MLB will not discipline White Sox pitcher Mike Clevinger after completing its investigation of allegations of domestic violence made against him.
• Texas Tech has suspended men’s basketball coach Mark Adams after he made a reference to slavery when speaking to a player.
• Former NFL defensive end Derek Wolfe said he once played a game just weeks after he was temporarily paralyzed.

The top five...

… things I saw yesterday:

5. Lafayette’s double-overtime win over American in the Patriot League men’s semifinals. The Leopards will face regular-season champ Colgate on Wednesday with a chance to go to the NCAA tournament with an 11–22 record.

4. Giannis Antetokounmpo’s throwing the ball off the backboard to himself to secure a triple double. (Unlike Ricky Davis in 2003, because Giannis attempted the shot on the correct basket, he was actually credited with the rebound.)

3. Caitlin Clark’s triple double in the Big Ten women’s championship game.

2. Tyrese Haliburton’s long three to give the Pacers the win.

1. Jamal Shead’s buzzer beater to lift No. 1 Houston over Memphis.

SIQ

On this day in 1923, the Cardinals announced they would put numbers on players’ sleeves, making them the second MLB team to use jersey numbers. Which team was first?

• Yankees
• Cleveland
• Cubs
• Red Sox

Friday’s SIQ: After briefly going by another name, the NFL decided on March 3, 1950, to stick with the name we know today. What was the short-lived other name?

• American Football League
• National-American Football League
• National League of Football
• National Football Association

Answer: National-American Football League. The name was the result of the December 1949 merger between the NFL and the All-America Football Conference, which had begun play in ’46 to challenge the NFL.

The AAFC posed a direct threat to the NFL by placing teams in some of the same cities as NFL franchises while expanding to markets that didn’t already have pro football. By the end of the 1949 season, the NFL was willing to make a deal with the AAFC. The merger resulted in what would be known as the National-American Football League. After 75 days, though, NFL commissioner Bert Bell announced the expanded league’s 13 owners voted unanimously to play the following season under the NFL name.

In 1950, the NFL welcomed three new teams from the AAFC: the Browns, 49ers and Colts. The NFL’s previous system of East and West divisions was replaced by the American and National conference system that we know today. Those names are a nod to the old AAFC, not the more famous merger of the AFL and NFL.