Temetrius Jamel Morant, or Ja Morant, has had one of the more controversial careers in the NBA. On June 29, he was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers after various suspensions, breaks, and reported conflicts with the Grizzlies’ coaching staff.
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In a recent conversation, Ja Morant’s father opened up about his take on any existence of a rift with the Grizzlies.
“I don’t have a bad thing to say about Memphis, because like I said, it wasn’t Memphis that traded him, and we don’t trade Memphis,” Tee Morant said on Saturday’s episode of his “Tee’d Up” podcast. “It was the organization that felt like they was going down another path, and I guess we didn’t belong, but I mean, it’s no hard feelings or whatever.”
Tee Morant pointed towards the organization making a conscious decision to part ways with Ja Morant. While this seems obvious, the devil is in the details. In November 2025, Ja Morant was suspended for a game after an exchange with the team’s coach, Tuomas Iisalo, after losing to the Lakers.
According to ESPN, after Iisalo challenged Morant’s leadership style, he did not respond in an appropriate manner. This ultimately led to his suspension due to conduct detrimental to the team.
Upon his return after the one-game suspension, when Morant was asked whether he still felt the same joy playing basketball, his answer was a straightforward “No.”
This isn’t all. His production and participation had suffered over the years. In November 2024, he sustained an injury while trying to dunk against the Lakers and missed eight games. When he returned, he attempted fewer dunks, but it wouldn’t end there.
In January 2026, he suffered a UCL sprain that effectively ended his season. That season, he only played 20 games. In fact, over the past three seasons, he’d only played 79 games due to injuries and suspensions.
Morant’s suspensions came from various on- and off-court incidents. He’d been suspended three times between 2023 and 2026. His first suspension in March 2023 was a result of him displaying a firearm during an Instagram Live broadcast in a Colorado nightclub.
The NBA took notice, ran an investigation, and suspended Ja Morant for eight games without pay in March 2023. A lot of backlash followed. Morant took accountability for his actions and even entered a counselling program to help himself cope with stress and anxiety better.
Two months later, after coming out of his counselling program, he was suspended a second time, and for the same reason. He was seen holding a firearm on an Instagram Live broadcast on his friend Davonte Pack’s account.
The NBA was shocked. Ultimately, in May 2023, two months after the first incident, Ja Morant was suspended again, and this time, for 25 games. He was also asked to fulfill a league-sponsored program to look into his off-court issues.
Finally, the last one-game suspension came after his reported conflict with coach Iisalo. He had also asked the media to direct their questions towards the coaching staff after only scoring eight points against the Lakers in November 2025.
After absorbing the initial shock of getting traded, the player was ready to embrace a new world with the Trail Blazers. In his own words, he was ready to show them a “different Ja.”
He recently debuted against the Golden State Warriors in a preseason game. The Trail Blazers won 123–118, and he scored eight points, five assists, and two rebounds.