When the Memphis Grizzlies and their teammates took on the Los Angeles Lakers in February, Ja Morant had already spent several months showing off his hops. It was well known by then that Morant was willing to take on some of the biggest names in the NBA.
However, 20-year-old Morant was set to step up his bravery. He grabbed a backdoor bounce pass as he slid toward the lane, collected himself, and shot at the hoop. There was a defender standing in his way. Despite the fact that Anthony Davis, one of the fiercest rim defenders in the NBA, was present, Morant acted as if no one else was.
“Just a guy getting in the way,” Morant remarked in a conversation. “I don’t give a damn about the person’s name. I’m merely attempting to complete a play.
As he attempted to jam the ball over the top of him, Davis attempted to push Morant’s left forearm into his neck as he approached the peak of his flight. He made a sensational miss, sending Davis and Morant flying to the court as the ball crashed off the backboard. However, the Memphis building was bustling.
De’Anthony Melton of the Grizzlies stated, “The A.D. one was kind of the one where you were like, ‘Oh, wow, he really doesn’t care who’s down there.” “You’re in his way if you’re in it.”
The Grizzlies, led by rookie point guard Jared Morant, are fighting for a final playoff berth in the N.B.A.’s relaunch in Walt Disney World in Florida. Even though the so-called bubble was strange, the environment seems strangely familiar now that Morant is scoring dunks again, and not only when he makes them.
Morant has accomplished a rare achievement in just his first season in the league: very few players have ever made failed dunks look cooler.
Melton remarked, “They’re all just so disrespectful.”Because of his size, Morant’s dunks—both the makes and the misses—have an amazing aesthetic appeal. At 6-foot-3 and 174 pounds, Morant is more of a spruce tree in a league full of redwoods. Point guards slamming a dunk in the open court is one thing. It is quite another for someone like Morant to have the self-assurance to take on someone like the 6-foot-10 Goliath that is Davis and the 6-foot-8 power forward that plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Kevin Love, whom Morant almost completely destroyed earlier in the season.
After the game, Love told reporters, “I knew he was athletic, but damn.” “He really leaped over me.”
Love’s thoughts surfaced when Morant grabbed a loose ball close to the 3-point line and accelerated toward the hoop with a strong dribble during the Cavaliers’ December game against the Grizzlies.
Love wanted to draw a charge, to start with. (Love said that the Cavaliers had previously given players $100 for achievements of this kind.) Fear manifested as a terrifying image of 7-foot-2 Frederic Weis being destroyed by Vince Carter during the 2000 Summer Olympics, a moment known as the “dunk of death.”
It became out that Morant attempted to jump over Love and put the ball through the hoop. However, the ball bounced off the rim’s back and entered orbit.
Probably the best missed dunk ever, according to Tyus Jones of the Grizzlies.
Love showed respect and relief by assisting Morant in standing up after the play.
“Love expressed her gratitude that he missed.”
In an interview, Pete Pranica, the play-by-play announcer for the Grizzlies on television, related how, during a subsequent timeout, one of the officials, Tony Brothers, made his way to the scorer’s table and shook his head in astonishment. Pranica cautioned referees who were unfamiliar with the Morant experience to remain vigilant as the season progressed.
Pranica remembered warning them, “You might see something tonight that you’ve never seen before.”
In February, after his dunk attempt against Davis of the Lakers, Morant was cruising to a decisive victory with 27 points and 14 assists. After that, he traded jerseys with LeBron James of the Lakers, who described him as “very special.”
Four days later, in a Brooklyn Nets game, Morant appeared to float as he stopped a Jones alley-oop lob before horribly misfiring off the back iron. Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot of the Nets was whistled for pushing him, and the Grizzlies won by 39 points. Even though the video of his failed dunk went viral, Morant chose not to view the replay. He claimed that although his teammates watch them all, he never does.
“I’m partial to makes,” he declared. “Misses don’t earn me cool points.”