NBA Star Had to Demonstrate How to Pass a Basketball in Court Testimony

Ja Morant testified for the first time on Monday in the lawsuit filed against him regarding a fight with a teenager at his Memphis home in July 2022.

According to the lawsuit, the altercation came during a pick-up basketball game. Joshua Holloway, who was then 17, allegedly grew frustrated after losing several games in a row and threw a one-handed pass to Morant to check the ball. Per the Memphis Grizzlies star, the ball hit him on the left side of his face.

Morant then testified that he asked Holloway: "What you on?" Holloway didn't reply, but pulled up his shorts.

"Him pulling up his shorts, where I'm from, that's a fighting stance," Morant said.

According to Morant, Holloway then moved toward him, and he stepped forward and punched the teenager in what he and his lawyers claim was self defense.

The testimony took a bizarre turn at one point when Morant demonstrated to an attorney how a check-ball situation is supposed to go.

"Assuming I'm guarding you, once you throw the ball to me, what should I do?" the attorney asked Morant.

Morant answered that protocol dictates the defensive player should turn and look at his teammates to make sure everyone is ready on the court before he throws the ball back to the offensive player.

Morant and the attorney then established how far the defensive and offensive players should be from one another when the ball is checked. The game was to 11, so Morant said the ball was not live after the defensive player passed it back until the offensive player passed to a teammate (similar, in other words, to an in-bounds pass in an NBA game).

"And how do you normally ... chest pass? Bounce pass?" the attorney asked.

"You can do it either way, bounce pass or chest pass," Morant answered.

"Give me one?" the attorney said, and Morant obliged. The two passed the ball back and forth three times, then Morant returned to his seat.

Morant was handed a 25-game suspension by the NBA for brandishing firearms repeatedly. He is eligible to return on Dec. 19. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver told reporters during a news conference prior to the NBA's in-season tournament that he has been "closely monitoring" Morant's situation.

"In fact, we intend to have a check-in this week directly, Ja and I," Silver said. "But 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. 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."

Holloway, meanwhile, now plays Division I basketball at the NCAA level for Samford University. The freshman is averaging 5.1 points in 16.4 minutes per game this season.