Grizzlies star Ja Morant to undergo season-ending shoulder surgery

The Memphis Grizzlies announced on Monday night that their star guard, Ja Morant, will require surgery to repair a tear in his right shoulder, ending his season.

According to the Grizzlies, Morant was hurt 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.

Since returning from his 25-game suspension, the Grizzlies’ Ja Morant averaged 25.1 points in nine games with Memphis going 6-3 in those contests.

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 for a similar offense, Morant served a two-game NBA suspension for showing a gun on social media during the first twenty-five games of the current campaign. This is his second such suspension in less than a year.

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 best 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 spot in the Western Conference. With Morant, a playoff push didn’t seem entirely out of the question. The long odds just got much 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 roughly $34 million, but he lost 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.

A subsequent livestream in May, during which he was riding in the front seat of a car with a friend, revealed Morant brandishing a weapon once more, which prompted the 25-game suspension.