THE ANGELS-. The star of the Memphis Grizzlies, Ja Morantwill miss the rest of the season NBA due to a shoulder injury he suffered a few weeks after his return after a 25-game suspension, his team reported this Monday.
The Grizzlies said in a statement that the talented 24-year-old point guard suffered a right shoulder injury during practice on Saturday.
“After continued pain and instability, Morant underwent an MRI that revealed a labral tear,” the Grizzlies reported. “Morant will undergo surgery that will cause him to miss the remainder of the current season and is expected to make a full recovery before the 2024-2025 season.”
The injury is a hard blow for Memphis and the star, who were looking to turn around a season that has them languishing in thirteenth place in the Western Conference with a 13-23 record.
The announcement of Morant’s withdrawal comes less than a month after the star returned to play, last December 19, with a 34-point display in the victory over the New Orleans Pelicans.
Morant was suspended for the first 25 games of the 2023-2024 season after posting images of himself brandishing firearms early last year.
He received an eight-game suspension last March after he appeared on video flashing a gun at a Denver nightclub. He then suffered a longer one at the start of this campaign after another video of him with a gun inside a car was published last May.
Before his return last month, Morant said that through therapy and counseling he had found a “new outlook on life.”
“I feel like I learned some things about myself during that process,” Morant said in December.
“Very eye-opening. It gave me a new outlook on life in terms of how I go about my days, how I conduct myself. I’m just grateful and grateful that I’m still here in the position that I’m in.”
Source: AFP
