Ja Morant Is Now Reportedly Being Accused Of Beating Up A 17 Year Old Kid Then Flashing A Gun At Him And Threatening The Head Of Security At A Memphis Mall

Justin Ford. Getty Images.

Well this doesn't sound too great. It was just under a month ago The Athletic broke the Pacers bus story, which was pretty crazy in its own right

Following a game between the Indiana Pacers and Memphis Grizzlies on Jan. 29 in Memphis, acquaintances of Grizzlies star Ja Morant aggressively confronted members of the Pacers traveling party near the team’s bus in the loading area of FedExForum, and later someone in a slow-moving SUV — which Morant was riding in — trained a red laser on them.

The two members of the traveling party who spoke to The Athletic said that they did not see who shined the laser from the SUV. They also don’t know if the laser was attached to a gun, but they believed it was. A Pacers security guard in the loading area at the time remarked: “That’s 100 percent a gun.”

If you remember back when this story broke, Ja conveniently did not play immediately after due to a "sore left wrist"

which was certainly an interesting decision.

Now about a month later, we have more issues w/ Morant and this kind of stuff based on the latest reporting:

Yahoo- Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant was accused of repeatedly punching a teenage boy in the head and threatening him with a gun last summer, according to Memphis police records acquired by the Washington Post.

The alleged incident reportedly came four days after another incident in which Morant allegedly threatened the head of security at a Memphis mall. Both allegations are emerging about a month after several of Morant's acquaintances allegedly threatened and harassed Indiana Pacers staffers with a red laser.

In the incident involving the teenage boy, the 17-year-old reportedly told police Morant, who turned 23 last August, punched him 12 or 13 times during a pickup basketball game at the point guard's house. He claimed Morant and a friend hit him so hard it left a "large knot" on the side of his head, which police observed themselves.

The teenager also reportedly Shelby County Sheriff’s Office detectives that after the fight, Morant went into his house and re-emerged with his hand on a gun visible in the waistband of his paints.

Morant reportedly told police he had been acting in self-defense, admitting "I swung first" but believing the boy was the aggressor because he threw a ball at Morant's head then stepped up to him pulling up his pants. The boy, however, alleged that he was checking the ball back to Morant, who had thrown the ball hard at him first, and the ball slipped through Morant's fingers.

Morant also reportedly claimed the boy shouted “I’m gonna come back and light this place up like fireworks,” and filed his own police report weeks later, saying the boy threatened his family.

I'm not going to pretend to be a lawyer or know what classifies as self-defense and all that, but I will say if these allegations are accurate, that's not great.

In addition to this incident, there was another one in a mall that I don't think I had ever heard before (but I could be alone there)

In the mall incident Morant was alleged to have threatened the head of security during an altercation in the parking lot, with a member of Morant's group allegedly shoving him in the head. No arrests were made.

The incident allegedly occurred after Morant’s mother got into a dispute with an employee at a Finish Line store, then called Morant, who arrived to the scene with as many as nine other people. The group allegedly refused to leave when confronted by the head of security, leading to the shove.

As the group left, the guard reportedly alleged Morant said "Let me find out what time he gets off."

As they say, where there's smoke there's usually fire. Between the Pacers incident and then these additional ones, it's hard to think everything being reported is just hot air. There has to be some level of truth (if not entirely true) to what's being reported, which begs the question if the league is going to do anything about it? If things escalate to criminal charges, that's a pretty big deal right?

I'm not sure what they could do, but as a guy the NBA is trying hard to make one of the future faces of the league, this isn't exactly what you're hoping to hear. Not only that, but Morant is also about to be the new face of Powerade

So allegations like this obviously can impact how you're perceived to the general public. For a guy that has the rep of trying to be a fake tough guy, we're seeing more and more stories that sort of support that idea. Who grabs a gun (allegedly) over pick up? That's crazy. I understand things can get hot, but what are we doing (allegedly)?

At some point, Ja, the Grizzlies, and the league are going to have to comment on this stuff. We're at the point where you just can't keep brushing it under the rug or pretending it doesn't exist. These are pretty serious allegations involving one of the biggest stars the league has. Now that the cat is out of the bag and there's legit reporting on this, how will the league handle it?

I'm sure there will be some that point to what happened with Kyrie and compare it to Ja's current situation, which is only going to add way more fuel to this fire. Will sponsors start to get involved? What about his Nike shoe deal? Something tells me we're only in the beginning stages of this thing, not the end. Could the league suspend Ja while they investigate? That would be pretty crazy given where we are in terms of the NBA's home stretch, but I don't even know what the league can do. If you remember, it was the Nets that suspended Kyrie, not the NBA. Will the Grizzlies do the same to their franchise player? I can't imagine they will.

Either way, not a great look for Morant, and something tells me this is just the tip of the iceberg.