Tennessee judge pushes off issuing ruling in Ja Morant lawsuit

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee judge on Wednesday said she won’t immediately hand down a ruling on whether Ja Morant’s legal team successfully argued that the NBA star is immune from being sued by a teenager he punched during a pickup game in 2022.

According to The Commercial Appeal, Shelby County Circuit Court Judge Carol Chumney said she needs more time due to the lack of case precedent surrounding the lawsuit.

“Everybody was hoping for a big decision, or finality, or something like that,” Chumney said. “These are important legal issues.”

Wednesday’s court session was a continuation of a hearing that began Dec. 11. The hearing centered on Morant’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit under Tennessee’s so-called ground law. The NBA player’s lawyers argue Morant is immune from liability under the law, which allows people who feel threatened at their homes to act with force in certain situations. The law is used in criminal cases, but Chumney’s ruling last month cleared the way for Morant’s lawyers to apply it in the civil case.

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The lawsuit filed by Joshua Holloway accuses Morant of assaulting him when the Memphis Grizzlies All-Star guard punched him during a pickup game at the home of Morant’s parents on July 26, 2022. Then 17, Holloway had been invited to play at the private court of the Morant family. Holloway is now 18 and he plays for Samford University.

Morant says he was defending himself after Holloway aggressively threw the basketball at him with a one-handed, baseball-style pass and hit him in the face during a check-ball situation. A “check” is a common practice in pickup games in which two opposing players pass the ball to each other and check to see if their teammates are ready, often before starting a game or after a foul.

Additionally, the NBA suspended Morant for the first 25 games this season after a video of him flashing a handgun was posted online. The video shows Morant sitting in the passenger seat of a car and was posted after he finished serving an eight-game suspension in March for another video in which he displayed a handgun in a Denver-area strip club.

Morant apologized for both videos. He returned to the court on Tuesday with a stirring 34-point season debut.

Ja Morant’s father, Tee Morant, has testified that the family has for years invited young local basketball players and friends of Ja Morant to play on their full-sized home court. Morant’s parents cook a meal for the players after the pickup games.

Holloway had been invited to play several times and had built a friendly relationship with the Morants. Ja Morant testified that the teen behaved well and showed respect to him and his family during his previous visits.