Ja Morant not being charged with crime for brandishing gun twice will not impact the NBA discipline

Memphis guard Ja Morant not being charged with a crime for twice displaying a gun on social media will not prevent the NBA from handing down more discipline, Commissioner Adam Silver said Friday.

Silver is prepared to announce another penalty for Morant at the end of the NBA Finals, as he said the league and its players association agreed it would be ‘unfair’ to announce the results of the investigation during the Heat-Nuggets series.

Morant was once again seen brandishing a gun on a live stream in May, in the front seat of a car, after doing so in a suburban Denver strip club in March.

Morant was suspended eight games by the league for his March indiscretion. 

Police in Colorado looked into the March incident and did not file charges. Morant has also not been charged with doing anything illegal related to the May incident.

Ja Morant waved a pistol around on IG Live back in early May – his second instance this year 

NBA commissioner Adam Silver says discipline for Ja Morant will be announced post-Finals

But the collective bargaining agreement between the league and its players also says players agree ‘not to do anything that is materially detrimental or materially prejudicial to the best interests’ of their team or the NBA. 

 ‘Waving them around, displaying them in a certain context, is not consistent with gun safety and is not the proper message that an NBA player, particularly one at Ja´s level, should be sending to the tens of millions of followers he has – and particularly when it´s an incident once again, where it´s been streamed live on social media,’ Silver said. 

‘So yes, I think given the similarity of this incident to the first one, I was alarmed, I was disheartened.’

‘When we have a standard for conduct detrimental, at the end of the day, it´s one based on what we see as the values of this league and what our expectations from our players in terms of the image we´re portraying to our fans,’ Silver continued. ‘So, it´s not a legal standard. It´s a private organization standard.’

Morant’s latest gun scandal went viral on May 14, as he was seen waving a gun while sitting in the passenger’s seat of a car and listening to rap music. 

Memphis suspended Morant from all team activities later that day.

The league suspended Morant for eight games after he was seen waving a gun in March

Morant´s actions were also investigated after a Jan. 29 incident in Memphis that he said led to Davonte Pack – someone Morant calls ‘my brother’ and the person who live-streamed the May incident – being banned from Grizzlies home games for a year.

That incident followed a game against the Indiana Pacers; citing unnamed sources, The Indianapolis Star and USA Today reported that multiple members of the Pacers saw a red dot pointed at them while they were near the loading dock where their bus was located, and The Athletic reported that a Pacers security guard believed the laser was attached to a gun.

The NBA confirmed that individuals it didn’t identify were banned from the arena but said its investigation into the January event found no evidence that anyone was threatened with a weapon.

Morant and Pack also are involved in a civil lawsuit brought after an incident at Morant´s home last summer, in which a then-17-year-old alleged that they assaulted him. Morant filed a countersuit on April 12, accusing the teen of slander, battery and assault.