NBA Suspends Ja Morant For Eight Games Following Nightclub Incident

The Memphis Grizzlies have been without their star player Ja Morant for five games now and they will remain without him just a little bit longer.

After flashing a gun during an Instagram Live on March 4 while in a strip club partying, Morant was suspended and an investigation was launched by the NBA as well as Colorado police. While the police investigation was closed due to lack of evidence to charge anyone with any crimes, the NBA was still investigating.

On Wednesday, Morant met with NBA commissioner Adam Silver and was it was announced that he was suspended for a total of eight games.

The NBA released a statement regarding Morant's investigation and suspension on Wednesday afternoon.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Morant is eligible to return to the court on Monday but won't likely return until "sometime shortly thereafter."

"The suspension was for time already served. Six games that he was already out for, and two games, quite honestly, that he wasn't ready to play coming up anyway, but he certainly will lose the money for those games," Wojnarowski. "It's a suspension without pay. But the reality exists that Ja Morant could be back on the court playing for the Grizzlies next week."

Silver wanted to sit down with Morant to see what he learned and approved upon during his counseling in the treatment program in Florida. This was the final step in the NBA's investigation that led them to conclude that "there was not a gun recovered" and Morant didn't have a gun in the team facility or on a team flight. According to him and witnesses, he just briefly handled the gun during the Instagram Live.

His return to the court may be held up slightly because he's not ready to play just yet. "Ja Morant is going to be back on the court as soon as he's ready to be back on the court," Wojnarowski said. "Again, eligible on Monday, not ready, regardless, not really ready to be able to play on Monday. They've got to give him some time here to just ramp back up, get reacclimated with his teammates."

Wojnarowski also said the league has had previous investigations on Morant due to troubling behavior that was concerning to everyone, so this latest incident was not the first.

"I think there's a sense now it is on Ja Morant, it is on that organization now to take this forward and be better for it," he said. "Because there is certainly a lot at stake, again, not just for that organization, but for this league. This is one of the faces of the NBA at 23-years-old."

Coca-Cola recently announced that they pulled Morant's Powerade ads amid his legal woes. The ads were pulled just days after it was announced that he was the first athlete partnership for the brand in more than five years and his ads were meant to relaunch Powerade. At this time, it's unclear if Coca-Cola has completely severed ties with the athlete or if the ads were just pulled until things settled down.

Morant's other endorsement deal, signature shoes with Nike, has been safe throughout the ordeal. Nike issued the 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."