NBA
Injury report: Memphis superstar Ja Morant set to undergo season-ending surgery for labral tear
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All posts by Antonio KozlowUpdated09 Jan 2024
Incredibly enough, we were only able to see Ja Morant play nine games this season, after he returned only weeks ago after serving his 25-game suspension and immediately began to dominate the NBA courts again. This Monday his team announced that the player will now miss the remainder of the campaign with a torn labrum.
Memphis shared an official statement after they played Phoenix this weekend. “At Saturday’s training session, Morant suffered a subluxation of his right shoulder. Following ongoing soreness and instability, Morant underwent an MRI that revealed an underlying labral tear. Morant will undergo season-ending surgery and is expected to make a full recovery ahead of the 2024-25 season,” it reads.
The superstar was first ruled out of that evening’s game against the Suns due to shoulder soreness. However, the press then asked for an update after the game, and head coach Taylor Jenkins revealed that the player’s woes increased on the road.
BREAKING: Ja Morant is out for the rest of the season due to a labrum tear pic.twitter.com/Pd1cH3ROkm
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) January 9, 2024
“The soreness really crept up the other day on the road,” Jenkins said without knowing the true gravity of the injury. “We’re still trying to get more evaluation, so hopefully in the next day or two we have a better idea. Obviously the medical team felt best just to put him in a sling just to be positive there, but more evaluation to come.”
The Grizzlies improved to a 7-4 record ever since Morant returned in December, but his team is proving they can win without him. On Sunday, the team produced a 14-1 run in the fourth quarter and outscored Phoenix 35-18 to win the match.
“This group, we’ve been fighting all season long, but it’s taken a turn right now and they’re seeing the results for it,” coach Jenkins said. “It’s just two games playing really well, we know we’ve got a long way to go. We started dictating more, did a much better job, keeping it simple.”
Jaren Jackson Jr., on the other hand, gave special credit to their defense for the turnaround. “We made them run a little bit, work a little harder,” he said. “It was back and forth at all times. I never really felt like it was in our favor until the buzzer.”
Rival Kevin Durant knows Morant is a hard worker and will bounce back stronger than ever
Once the game was over, and news broke out that Morant’s injury was more serious than initially thought of, Phoenix’s Kevin Durant delivered some word of encouragement for him.
“Like I’ve been saying, regardless of how you feel, (there was) days I didn’t want to come into the gym, there’s days I was feeling sorry for myself and didn’t believe in myself. But you still gotta go to work and get the rehab in,” the superstar said. “I think Ja has a great mentality, he’s been working hard his whole life to get where he is. I’m sure he’ll bounce back.”
The veteran forward had missed three games due to soreness in his right hamstring, but returned on Sunday against Memphis and hit 23 points and 10 rebounds. Even though the Suns improved their overall game, after the contest he insisted that playing well is not enough.
“Only results matter,” Durant claimed. “Context really doesn’t matter. Whatever it is, we know what it takes and expectations from the outside don’t mean (anything), but we understand with the talent we have, people expect so much and will be disappointed when we take losses like this.”
