Adam Silver is planning to meet with Ja Morant over the coming week as he nears return from a 25-game suspension.
“I have been monitoring the situation closely, and him,” Silver told reporters at a news conference Saturday before the Lakers defeated the Pacers to win the In-Season Tournament. “In fact we intend to have a check-in this week directly, Ja and I. But folks in the league office, together with Ja and his team and the Players Association, have been in regular contact, essentially weekly. There have been those checkpoints.
“We’ve, together, laid out a program for him over the last several weeks, and to the best of my knowledge, he’s complied with everything he’s asked to do. As I said, we’ll talk at least once this week before he comes back, and we will review the program and make sure the conditions are in place for him to be successful going forward.”
After Morant, 24, was caught on video holding a gun for a second time — the first resulted in an eight-game suspension — Silver sat the Grizzlies’ superstar down for the first 25 games of this season, citing conduct detrimental to the league.
The commissioner also required that Morant “formulate and fulfill a program with the league that directly addresses the circumstances that led to him to repeat this destructive behavior.”
There are four games left for the Grizzlies before Morant is eligible to return on Dec. 19 in New Orleans, but their season may already be beyond saving.
Memphis, after finishing second in the Western Conference at 51-31 last year, has started the season an abysmal 6-15 and was unceremoniously swept out of the In-Season Tournament.
The absence of Morant, who is in the first of a five-year, $197 million contract, has been sorely felt.
And if his off-court behavior is not ameliorated, it will likely continue to be so.