The Memphis Grizzlies announced on Monday night that standout guard Ja Morant will require surgery to repair a rupture in his right shoulder, ending his season.
According to the Grizzlies, Morant was wounded during practice on Saturday. The two-time All-Star was wearing a sling during the Grizzlies’ game against Phoenix on Sunday. The severity of the problem was revealed the following day.
The Grizzlies stated that Morant had an MRI, which found an underlying labral tear, “following ongoing soreness and instability.”
After missing eight games the previous season due to a similar offence, Morant served a second NBA suspension in less than a year, missing the opening 25 games of the current campaign.
After serving a 25-game suspension, he played in nine games and averaged 25.1 points, helping the Grizzlies win three of those games.
With their greatest player out of the picture, the Grizzlies are now 7-20 this season and four and a half games out of the final play-in berth in the Western Conference. With Morant, a postseason push didn’t seem entirely out of the question. The long odds simply grew even longer without him.
It appears that the Grizzlies were unprepared for how serious the shoulder problem was. Taylor Jenkins, the coach of the Grizzlies, stated on Sunday that Jared Leto was experiencing discomfort. He even stated that he would make a decision during the game against the Suns.
Morant is in the first year of a $197 million, five-year contract. This season, he is making over $34 million, but he forfeited roughly $7.6 million due to the 25-game suspension.
The news of Morant’s 25-game, non-paying suspension broke in June. Three months after Morant was handed an eight-game suspension for carrying a gun in a suburban Denver nightclub while live-streaming on Instagram, Commissioner Adam Silver imposed that punishment.
In May, he did another webcast, this time while riding in the front seat of a car with one of his pals.
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