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Morant fined for gun gesture

JA Morant of the Memphis Grizzlies is in trouble after flashing an imaginary gun gesture during their game against the Miami Heat on Thursday.
JA Morant of the Memphis Grizzlies is in trouble after flashing an imaginary gun gesture during their game against the Miami Heat on Thursday.JUSTIN FORD/agence france-presse
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NEW YORK (AFP) — The National Basketball Association (NBA) took aim at Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant’s imaginary gun gesture on Friday, fining him $75,000 after he used it to celebrate a basket for the second time in a week.

NBA executive vice president Joe Dumars said in a statement that Morant — who was suspended twice in 2023 for incidents with real firearms — had been warned by the league after the first celebration “that this gesture could be interpreted in a negative light.”

Dumars called the gesture “inappropriate.”

Morant was first warned after he and Golden State’s Buddy Hield made the gesture, mimicking aiming a gun, at each other during a Grizzlies-Warriors game on Tuesday.

Morant then made similar gestures in a game against the Miami Heat on Thursday, when the gesture was directed at other Grizzlies players.

Morant scored 30 points and drilled the game-winner in the Grizzlies’ 110-108 victory at Miami.

Morant was suspended twice in 2023 for a total of 33 games after videos of him displaying firearms were live streamed on social media.

In March of 2023, he was banned eight games for live streaming a video in which he displayed a gun while at a Denver nightclub.

He was banned for 25 games to open the 2023-2024 season after another video of him displaying a gun inside a car surfaced, the league saying his decision to “once again wield a firearm on social media is alarming and disconcerting.”

The National Basketball Players Association called the 25-game suspension “excessive.”

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