Will NBA Star Ja Morant Return To The Court This Season?

After a few troublesome issues, it appears that Ja Morant has entered a counseling program at a treatment center in Florida.

According to ESPN senior reporter Adrian Wojnarowski, there "remains no timetable for his return to active play," leaving the question on whether the Memphis Grizzlies star will be returning to the court this season unanswered.

Earlier in the week, Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins said, "There are a lot of internal dialogues going on and obviously there's still things going on at the league level that we're in communication with." He also said that Morant is "fully engaged in this process and ready for whatever comes next after these two games."

And now a few days later, it's been reported that Morant has entered a counseling program in a treatment center in Florida, leaving his return even more up in the air than before.

The NBA star was suspended by the league, and a police investigation was launched after Morant went live on Instagram in a strip club waving a gun on March 4. While no charges will be brought due to lack of "available evidence to charge anyone with a crime," Morant's troubles don't stop there.

Coca-Cola recently announced that they pulled Morant's Powerade ads. The partnership was announced just days before the ads were pulled. Morant was the first athlete partnership for the brand in more than five years and his ads were meant to relaunch Powerade. Not only did the company remove a recent commercial, but they also removed him from their website. At this point, it's unknown if Coca-Cola is planning to sever all ties with the Grizzlies star or if they are waiting to see how things go from here.

While Powerade has taken that stance, Morant's other endorsement deal seems safe at the moment. Nike, who Morant has a signature shoe with, issued this statement, "We appreciate Ja's accountability and that he is taking the time to get the help he needs. We support the prioritization of his well-being."

Sports journalist and broadcaster Taylor Rooks recently tweeted an update on Morant, as well as an interview from 2021 that she did with him.

Her tweet explains that she's been in contact with Morant throughout the past few weeks and she's happy to see that he's working on being better through counseling. The interview she shared is a reminder about taking care of yourself.

In the interview, Morant explained that being in the bubble during the pandemic was not easy. "I was just overthinking a lot. I was getting down, but I don't tell nobody none of that stuff. Anytime somebody asks me like, are you okay, I always say I'm good, even if I'm not," he said. "I'm just kind of used to getting through stuff on my own."

The two continued to talk about what it's like to not be okay. "One of my favorite quotes was, 'You don't realize you're drowning when you're trying to be everyone else's anchor,'" he said. "So like, through the bubble, I was just thinking about that quote. Sometimes gotta put yourself first, your health, no matter what it is. I'm always making sure everybody else straight, but sometimes I gotta worry about me."

They continued chatting about therapy and how it can help, and when asked if Morant would ever consider therapy, he said, "I think eventually I would."