MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Ja Morant acted in self-defense when a teenager accused the two-time NBA All-Star of punching him during a pickup game at the home of the Memphis Grizzlies guard’s parents in 2022, a judge has ruled.
Shelby County Court Circuit Judge Carol Chumney cited Tennessee law on when the issue of self-defense can be raised, and she wrote in a ruling issued Monday that Morant “enjoys a presumption of civil immunity.”
The judge wrote that “a provocateur generally cannot invoke self-defense; if you start a fight, then you should be ready to finish it” under Tennessee law.
She also noted the only provocateur in this situation was the plaintiff, Joshua Holloway, with everyone else just wanting to play basketball.
Mike Miller, a former NBA player who was at the house when the fight occurred, testified that Holloway hitting Morant “in the face with a basketball ‘kind of started everything,’” the judge wrote in the ruling.
Additional evidence backed up that claim, and none contradicted it, the judge wrote.
The lawsuit filed by Holloway accuses Morant of assaulting him during a pickup game on July 26, 2022.
Then 17, Holloway had been invited to play at the private full-sized court of the Morant family. Holloway now plays basketball for Samford.
Morant claimed he was defending himself after Holloway aggressively threw the basketball at him with a one-handed, baseball-style pass.