Ja Morant has cost himself more than a pretty penny over the last several months.
The NBA announced Friday that Morant will be suspended for the first 25 games of the 2023-24 season after once again flashing a gun in an Instagram Live video.
As ESPN’s “First Take” was immediately reacting to the news, NBA reporter Brian Windhorst did some back-of-the-envelope arithmetic.
“I know you don’t think about money at this point, but this has been extraordinarily penal to Ja Morant from a financial standpoint,” Windhorst said.
“I would guesstimate at this point that he is at least looking at $50 million in losses. He’s going to have no pay for these 25 games, no pay for the eight games he already had this last year, and there’s no doubt in my mind he would have been All-NBA had he not had this incident last season.
“He didn’t make the All-NBA team. That cost him $40 million in bonus money. It might even be closer to $60 million, including lost business from sponsorships.”
Morant loses about $7.6 million, at a salary of $303,000 per game, in this year’s suspension, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks.
While Morant lost a sponsorship with Powerade during this past season’s suspension, he has maintained a partnership with Nike.
“We are pleased that Ja is taking accountability and prioritizing his well-being. We will continue to support him on and off the court,” Nike said in a statement to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne on Friday.
Morant’s suspension this past season came after he went on IG Live and brandished a firearm in a Denver-area strip club, the same week The Washington Post had published an extensive story about concerning situations involving the Grizzlies’ star.
“I know that’s not the priority here, but just from the financial standpoint that’s as bad of a penalty as we’ve seen in the history of professional sports,” Windhorst concluded on ESPN. “Now, he can recover all of that, but all the consequences he is facing, including to his reputation, the financial ramifications are severe.”
Stephen A. Smith clarified that Michael Vick suffered more catastrophic financial damages when he had his $100 million contract with the Falcons voided and went to prison over his role in a dogfighting ring.
Nevertheless, this has been a situation in which Morant has ultimately been significantly punished from an economic perspective.