Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant. Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

NBA faces backlash over Ja Morant's bizarre ejection

By Sai Mohan | Last updated Dec 6, 2024 5:29 AM ET

The NBA's officiating standards continue to stoop to new lows.

On Thursday night, Ja Morant was ejected with 6:45 left in the fourth quarter of the Grizzlies' 115-110 win over the Kings simply because he expressed unhappiness over a shooting foul. Since the Grizzlies guard had already picked up a technical a few minutes earlier, when he fought with Domantas Sabonis over a loose ball, he was, by default, ejected due to a second technical.

To make matters worse, crew chief Pat Fraher admitted later that Morant should have never been called for a shooting foul since he was "in legal guarding position" while trying to contest a DeMar DeRozan shot.

Fraher said Morant "used multiple points and profanity" toward an official while walking back to the bench. The league's Pool Report further confirmed that the first technical was also due to Morant cussing out referees.

All Morant could do was laugh.

https://t.co/OnD4Yv36Y8
— Ja Morant (@JaMorant) December 6, 2024

The incident makes zero sense and only further highlights how paltry the NBA's officiating standards are. If Morant had not been called for the bogus shooting foul on DeRozan, he'd have had no reason to protest the call in the first place, rendering the succeeding technical invalid.

The Athletic's Sam Vecenie perfectly summed up the "unacceptable" ejection.

Genuinely embarrassing that Ja Morant got ejected for this. Cant happen. Wasn’t even a foul, and dude gets tossed for a second technical. Unacceptable to compound that call with a T there. pic.twitter.com/vMHCmLQl6p
— Sam Vecenie (@Sam_Vecenie) December 6, 2024

Earlier in the season, the NBA faced similar backlash for allowing three game-winners to occur within 48 hours following a series of officiating gaffes.

Despite Morant's ejection, the Grizzlies escaped with the win on Thursday, improving to 15-8 and strengthening their hold over the fourth seed in the West. Memphis has won eight of its last 10 games and is starting to hit its stride after dealing with several injuries at the start of the season.

The Grizzlies will next face the Celtics (18-4) on Saturday night in what should be a highly entertaining contest.

Sai Mohan

A veteran sportswriter based in Portugal, Sai covers the NBA for Yardbarker and a few local news outlets. He had the honor of covering sporting events across four different continents as a newspaper reporter. Some of his all-time favorite athletes include Mike Tyson, Larry Bird, Luís Figo, Ayrton Senna and Steffi Graf.

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