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11 months ago
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Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant appeared in court on Monday over allegations he punched a teenager during a pickup basketball game at his house last year.
Morant, who is nearing the end of a 25-game suspension without pay for brandishing firearms in two separate viral videos earlier this year, is accused of attacking now-18-year-old Josh Holloway at his mansion just outside Memphis.
According to Holloway, a high-school basketball player, the incident occurred after he checked the ball to the NBA point guard and it slipped through his hands before hitting him in the face.
The teenager's mother sued Morant on his behalf, claiming he and his friends repeatedly puncher her son in the head and face even while on the ground.
In his countersuit, the suspended Grizzlies player alleges that he was simply acting in self-defense after Holloway 'intentionally' threw a basketball at his face and then 'balled up his fists and walked aggressively toward Morant as if to attack him.'
Grizzlies star Ja Morant appeared in court on Monday over allegations he punched a teenager during a pickup basketball game
Morant, pictured with friend Davonte Pack, is accused of attacking a 17-year-old at his mansion just outside Memphis last year
Tee Morant, Ja's father, testified in court after receiving a subpoena in the civil case
Just one week before his scheduled NBA return against the New Orleans Pelicans, Morant was seen in Memphis' Shelby County Circuit court on Monday as he prepares to take to the stand and testify against Holloway's version of events.
Over a dozen people are understood to have been subpoenaed in the case, including Morant's father Tee and his close friend Davonte Pack. His mother Jamie and former Grizzlies player Mike Miller also received court orders.
Morant's countersuit also alleges that Holloway threatened to return to his house and 'light it up like a firework show' after their altercation.
It also alleges that Holloway later 'lied to police about Morant flashing a gun.'
He is also accused of 'violating a court order by leaking details of a sealed case to the media,' according to the suit. That leak allegedly cost Morant money by hurting his chances to make an All-NBA team this season.
Holloway, who was age 17 at the time of the incident, told the Washington Post that Morant and Pack (who was also named in the initial lawsuit) 'haven't taken accountability for their actions. I don't think you should be jumping a kid over a basketball game, regardless of any situation that should happen.'
Morant was hit with a 25-game suspension back in June after another video of him brandishing a firearm emerged on social media, three months after he already received an eight-game suspension for the same offense.
The Memphis point guard is set to return next week after serving a 25-game NBA suspension
Morant received the ban for brandishing firearms in two separate viral videos earlier this year
He was sued by Holloway before initially being suspended for eight games back in March
Yet after serving 21 games of that suspension, he is expected to return for Memphis against New Orleans next week.
'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,' NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said over the weekend.
'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 been 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.'
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