Latest revelations show Ja Morant has lost control of his own story | Giannotto

Ja Morant sat in front of his locker Tuesday night, holding court with reporters ahead of a plane ride to New Orleans that awaited the Memphis Grizzlies after their final home game of the regular season.

“I sleep on every flight. I’m scared of heights,” Morant revealed, sounding as comfortable as he had in weeks.

But how is that possible, he was asked, given all those dunks in which it appears as if he might jump out of the gym?

“That’s different,” he replied. “I’m in control of that.”

Less than 48 hours later, Morant found out once more he no longer controls the narrative about who he is when he’s not playing basketball.

The latest revelations from The Washington Post, in a 5,000-word report published Thursday, furthered that notion by providing the most detailed look yet at the transgressions Morant allegedly perpetrated around the Memphis area over the past nine months.

But none of it – not the amended and unsealed lawsuit Morant is facing, or the shoe store employee who portrays Morant as a bully, or the claims of preferential treatment Morant received from local law enforcement – changed the path forward for him.

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Morant has been accused of punching a teenager over a pick-up basketball game. He has been accused of threatening and intimidating a mall security guard and a shoe salesman. He has filmed himself holding a gun in a Denver area strip club. He has shown a stunning combination of poor decision-making, disgraceful behavior and disregard for the repercussions of his actions.

He has not, however, been involved in anything new since his eight-game suspension, and he hasn’t been charged with a crime. Nor, frankly, would a lot of Memphians who got in an altercation over a pickup basketball game or got unruly with a retail employee. This does not seem to be a conspiracy, or a situation in which a celebrity is getting away with something.

Whether you like it or not, famous people are treated differently by police because they are famous. Here and everywhere. Morant’s dealings with local authorities, in that way, are no different than former President Donald Trump’s recent indictment and arraignment. We only know about Morant's misdeeds because of who he is in the community, even if so many around Memphis (this columnist included) were slow to scrutinize him.

This doesn’t, of course, make the particulars of Morant’s conduct that continue to emerge any more acceptable.

The most cringeworthy allegation came from the shoe store employee with a story that makes Morant look worse than anything else.

Givon Busby isn’t pursuing a lawsuit against Morant. He didn’t seek publicity. He didn’t even know Morant. He was just doing his job at a Finish Line inside Wolfchase Galleria last July when Morant’s mother began following him around because the store didn’t have the shoe she wanted in her size. Busby said he then had to hide inside the stockroom for an hour because Morant showed up with a group of friends and stood outside the door threatening him by yelling, “I’m gonna wait until you get off work.”

“I thought, ‘Oh, he’s really trying to get me,’” Busby alleged in an interview with The Washington Post. “Like, he’s trying to hurt me.”

It paints an awful portrait of Morant, who said in an interview with ESPN’s Jalen Rose last month he simply came to the store to make sure his mother was safe and left the scene once he did.

In addition to that, the high school basketball player Morant punched during a pick-up basketball game at his house last July was named in court records now that he’s 18 years old. A lawsuit was unsealed and re-filed in Shelby County Circuit Court on March 28 under Joshua Holloway’s name and included claims of favorable treatment for Morant during the investigation conducted by the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department.

Holloway is a Samford commit who attended St. George’s during the 2021-22 school year before playing this past season at Oak Hill Academy, a Virginia prep school with a nationally recognized basketball program.

Among the more than 400 pages of court documents and interview transcripts from the case reviewed by The Commercial Appeal were cell phone screen shots of alleged Instagram messages sent to Morant by Holloway’s cousin, Memphis Tigers basketball point guard Alex Lomax, confronting him about why he hurt Holloway.

“Wouldn’t do a youngin’ like dat for no reason,” Morant wrote back, in part, to Lomax.

Morant has previously denied wrongdoing in the case and cited its seal when declining to go into details.

Nobody in court filings, though, disputes that Morant punched Holloway. Morant – and nine witnesses who signed affidavits – insist Holloway was the aggressor by throwing a ball in Morant’s face and squaring up to fight. Holloway and his attorney insist Holloway got jumped by Morant and his friend, Davonte Pack, and that Morant brandished a gun as Holloway left the property. Morant – and those nine witnesses – say it was Holloway who threatened to “light this place up like fireworks” as he was leaving.

Despite all that, in the hours after the incident occurred, when Holloway’s mother spoke to Morant’s father on the phone, Myca Holloway later told police that Tee Morant said the following about her son: “He is still welcomed back over here.”

That tidbit didn’t make it into The Washington Post.

There’s a lesson there. Morant’s life right now is more like a plane ride than a dunk.

You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter: @mgiannotto

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Latest revelations show Ja Morant has lost control of his own story