Highs and lows were a constant during Morant’s seven-year run in Memphis. Even the prologue seems far-fetched in the current era of college sports, where top prospects either spend a single season in college or transfer to multiple schools throughout their careers. Morant spent two years at Murray State before turning pro, when the Grizzlies made him the No. 2 overall pick in the 2019 draft.
He joined a core that included Jackson, and won NBA Rookie of the Year. Desmond Bane joined the next season, and the Grizzlies officially had their post-Grit ‘n’ Grind era. They surprised in the NBA bubble in 2020, upset the Golden State Warriors to make the playoffs in 2021 and ascended to the forefront of the NBA in 2022, when Morant was named second-team All-NBA and the Grizzlies earned the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference.
Grizzlies’ Ja Morant gestures to his teammates while he brings the ball up the court during a game between the Milwaukee Bucks and Memphis Grizzlies at on Dec. 26 in Memphis, Tenn.
Chris Day, The Commercial Appeal
There were plenty of people around the league who believed Memphis had the best young core in the NBA.
But Morant got injured during the next series against the Warriors. Since the end of the series against the Timberwolves, the Grizzlies have won four playoff games. Minnesota has won five playoff series.
Videos, suspensions and injuries
In March 2023, Morant was seen on Instagram Live brandishing a gun in a Denver-area nightclub, which resulted in an eight-game suspension. Two months later, another video with another gun and another suspension, this one for 25 games.
On the court, there was the overwhelming number of injuries, from ankle to hip to knee to shoulder. The past three seasons, Morant played a total of 79 games.
But then there were all of the poster dunks, including the one over Malik Beasley earlier in that Game 5 win over the Timberwolves.