Ja Morant made a spectacular return from his 25-game suspension, scoring 34 points — including a buzzer-beating, game-winning basket in the lane — as the Grizzlies rallied past the Pelicans on Tuesday night.
Morant was thrilled to be back in action and it showed, as The Associated Press’ Brett Martel relays.
“I’ve been putting work in, man,” Morant said. “I ain’t play a game in eight months. Had a lot of time to learn myself. A lot of hard days where I went through it. But you know, basketball is my life — what I love, therapeutic for me. And I’m just excited to be back.”
Morant’s point total was the most in NBA history by a player returning from an absence of at least 25 games. He heard a lot of boos from the New Orleans crowd, especially in the early going, but it didn’t faze him.
Morant lost approximately $7.6MM of his $34MM salary during the suspension. He’s in the first year of his five-year maximum-salary extension.
Whether Morant can carry Memphis back into the playoff picture remains to be seen. The Grizzlies dug themselves a deep hole, going 6-19 in his absence.
Morant will play in front of Memphis fans for the first time this season on Thursday when the team hosts the Pacers.
Hopefully he is done with all the foolishness…but I doubt it
Incedible game. Dude is a magician.
This makes Morant look even more pathetic and selfish knowing what he means to this franchise and fans and to still keep doing stupid things to get suspended says a lot about
There’s dudes playing and that have played in the NBA that have gotten away with far worse the Morant.
Hopefully the home game against pacers doesn’t turn out like its predecessor .
At least a video of him with a gun tucked in his pants celebrating his victory at a strip club has not appeared on the Internet yet, so that’s an improvement.
Is that a gun in your pants, or did you just hit a game winner?
Ja is unstoppable one on one. To take it to the rim like that. Means he didn’t respect their rim protection. Did it a few times.
Get your life in order ……. Plenty left
Who’s more dominant. Prime D. Rose or Morant?
“yeah! I’m thinking I’m back!”-Ja Morwick
Morant has definitely earned the negativity he gets (including from me), but I still hope he turns his career and life around. And this was fun to watch. I’m happy for him.
Great game from Ja. Not sure he fully understands his situation yet based on his responses after the game but he’s undeniably a superstar. We shall see