Ja Morant Shares Positive Message After Successful Shoulder Surgery

Just days after announcing season-ending surgery is necessary, Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant underwent a successful procedure on his right shoulder and is expected to make a full recovery ahead of the 2024-25 NBA season. 

Morant shared a quick message from the hospital after his surgery in an Instagram Story.

Thursday afternoon, the Grizzlies announced that their star guard underwent successful surgery on his right shoulder and will miss the rest of this season.

"Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant underwent successful surgery today to repair a labral tear in his right shoulder. Morant is expected to make a full recovery ahead of the 2024-25 season. Further updates will be provided as appropriate," the team announced.

Morant, 24, took to his Instagram Story to share the news that he's out of surgery and keeping a positive outlook.

"What you went thru has a purpose. So does your life. Focus on your life's purpose and you will get thru this trying time," he wrote on his Story that included a photo of him in the hospital.

Morant, who only played 9 games this season after coming off of his 25-game suspension, suddenly appeared on the injury report ahead of this past Sunday's Grizzlies game against the Phoenix Suns. There didn't appear to be anything wrong just a few days prior while playing the L.A. Lakers.

But the day following the Lakers game, Morant sustained a subluxation in his shoulder during a training session and it was determined that he suffered a labral tear.

After it was announced that Morant will be out for the rest of the season and require surgery earlier this week, he shared a post on Instagram captioned, "tired of 🔙🔜."

Shot by Nie, who often shares photos and videos of Morant, took to the comments to say, "🙏🏾💙 ain’t no battle stop you yet…neither will this one! 🤝🏾™️"

Many other people also left positive and supportive messages for the NBA star.

"Minor setback for a major come back my dawg 🤝🏾💪🏾💙," one person wrote. Another added, "The bounce back will be legendary 💙."

Commercial Appeal interviewed Brian Schulz, an orthopedic surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute in Los Angeles to find out more about Morant's injury and recovery. Schulz, who specializes in arthroscopic and open surgical techniques for sports related injuries to the knee, hip, elbow and shoulder, is also a team physician with the NHL's Anaheim Ducks and MLB's Los Angeles Angels.

When asked what a labral tear is, Schulz explained with an analogy, and then went more into detail.

"The labral is almost like a bumper when you're bowling and people put up the bumpers. The bumper keeps the ball on the track. The labrum tries to keep the ball in the socket, and the shoulder socket is a pretty shallow joint. It's not as confined as a hip joint. The labrum deepens the socket and keeps the ball in the center of the socket. If the ball gets pushed either out the front, back or bottom, the labrum tries to keep it from fully going over," he told Commercial Appeal.

"The issue is that if that labrum exceeds what the labrum is capable of handling, it can pull the labrum away from the bone."

According to Schulz, the surgery repairs the labrum back to where it should be. Morant will start physical therapy almost immediately after surgery but will have to avoid certain movements and activities for a while so the labrum can fully heal.

"In the normal person, that's going to take 2-to-3 months. He's an elite athlete. He may recover a little faster, but you don't want to rush that timeline because if you rush it too much, you get burned and he has to start over or gets hurt worse," Schulz explained. "Once he makes it to that kind of 2-to-3 month part if everything is going well, then they start strengthening all the muscles around his shoulder that they weren't able to initially."

Morant should be able to return to full basketball activity without restrictions in about six months, which means he is out for the rest of this season.