Ja Morant was the 2019–2020 Rookie of the Year who has taken the National Basketball Association by storm.
Between his poster-worthy jump shots and his influential nature, Morant is lining himself up to be the next basketball legend.
Despite having only played in three professional seasons, Morant has made a massive splash by impressing even the biggest names in the professional sports industry at such a young age.
This young player has been compared to countless legends who came before him and continues to amaze professionals and fans alike with the Memphis Grizzlies.
How Tall Is Ja Morant?
Ja Morant’s height is 6’3.”
This Memphis Grizzlies guard first entered the professional league as the second pick of the first round for the Grizzlies during the 2019 Draft.
Ja Morant leads the league in PPG in the paint 😤
Doing this at 6’3″. pic.twitter.com/OLOfJ8NTZI
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) February 3, 2022
Ja Morant—-6’3” in height, 11’7” in heart. Goodness gracious.
— Austin Krell (@NBAKrell) May 22, 2021
Had to look up Ja Morant’s height. 6’3″. Wow https://t.co/UoA9xRN6UD
— Blake Farmer (@flakebarmer) March 22, 2019
Ja Morant sure is a promising player who is having a breakout season but 6’3″ is a decent height for a PG.
There have been a slew of PG’s who were around 6 ft like Isiah Thomas, Nate Archibald, Mo Cheeks etc.
There was 5’3″ Muggsy Bogues with around 14-7 career stats.
— Ravi Jeswani (@RaviJeswani14) November 10, 2021
Ja Morant has some young Iverson in him: The way he moves, but also how he’s built. He’s longer than his height, very lean and his fast twitch is firing at all times. His athleticism has grace to it. This type of player is very lethal. (via @memgrizz) pic.twitter.com/QyiJmlgCKy
— Ball Don’t Stop (@balldontstop) November 5, 2019
Temetrius Jamel Morant was born in South Carolina on August 10th of 1999.
It wouldn’t take his parents Tee and Jamie Morant long to discover the caliber at which their son could play basketball, especially after he was named to the South Carolina 3A All-State team in both his junior and senior years while attending Crestwood High School.
By the time Morant graduated from high school, he was averaging 27 points, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists per game.
He finished his senior year at Crestwood High School as the all-time leading scorer in the school’s history with 1,679 points.
Ja Morant’s basketball career led him to Murray State University, where he became the first player to average at least 20 points and 10 assists per game since the 1983–1984 season when the National Collegiate Athletic Association first began acknowledging assists.
In 2019, Ja Morant was named the Player of the Year and Most Valuable Player after helping lead his team to the second round of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament.
This season gave Morant the 2019 Lute Olson Award and the 2019 Bob Cousy Award.
Morant would go on to join the National Basketball Association in 2019 and win Rookie of the Year for the 2019–2020 season, in which Morant started in every one of his first 130 games.
At this point in his basketball career, Morant is averaging about 18 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 7.3 assists in 31.7 minutes with a shooting percentage between 31.7% and 75.0%.
Is Ja Morant’s Left Arm Bigger Than His Right Arm?
Yes, Ja Morant’s left arm and hand are bigger than his right arm and hand.
Morant and his trainer Mo Wells tried to keep this small detail a secret, but professional basketball fans are known for having a keen eye for players.
After being hassled about it by everyone, including fans and even other members of the National Basketball Association, Morant admitted that his left arm is bigger and felt that he should just tell the public that his left hand is bigger as well to keep everyone from nagging him about it.
The difference in the lengths of Morant’s arms stems from a childhood injury he sustained while playing on a trampoline with his older cousins.
Morant went to attempt a double jump but ended up flying off in the wrong direction and nearly landing on his head.
To keep himself from landing head first, young Morant made the quick decision to twist himself.
This caused him to land arm first onto the railing and break his arm before he could even notice what had happened.
At first, Ja Morant thought that he just had a knot in his arm.
However, his older cousins stared in horror because his elbow was much higher than it was supposed to be.
Being completely unphased by the break, Morant yanked on his broken arm and was able to lower his elbow to only slightly higher than it was supposed to be.
After he and his cousins confirmed that there was nothing more they could do to fix his arm, they decided to show Morant’s aunt who held ice to the wound until his father arrived.
Ever since the injury, Ja Morant has felt that he has more control over the ball with his left hand and the results have forever influenced his playing style.
How Did Ja Morant Trick Ben Simmons?
Ja Morant managed to trick veteran player Ben Simmons by recalling a play that he watched during Simmons’s rookie year.
Morant was able to bait Simmons into picking up a foul on him and helping the Memphis Grizzlies snatch the victory from the Brooklyn Nets.
There were only four minutes left in regulation, so Morant decided to allow the ball to roll across half-court before Simmons was seemingly able to pressure Morant into picking up the ball.
Ja Morant purposely looked over at the nearby Grizzlies’ bench in order to lead Simmons to believe that the young star had lost his focus.
However, Morant was in complete control and knew that Simmons would reach in for the ball, resulting in Simmons getting his sixth foul of the game, eliminating him from the game altogether.
The Memphis guard cheekily waved at Simmons as he sat on the Nets’ bench, proving that Morant plays a powerful game, both physically and mentally, on the court.
Morant had planned on using his tactic on Simmons after remembering that he once did the same thing during his rookie year.
When Damichael Cole asked coach Taylor Jenkins if he had known that Morant was going to pull his move, the coach claimed that it was something that Morant had informed him of previously, but he didn’t go into details.
Ja Morant has not only made a name for himself as a skilled athlete, but he is also a well-researched tactician.
While there are plenty of players in the National Basketball Association who have a good instinct, few players actively search out and use knowledge from previous games.
The Memphis Grizzlies overtook the Brooklyn Nets 134-124, with a night filled with stunning plays.
The moment between Morant and Simmons shocked everyone and will go down in National Basketball Association history.
What Does Kevin Durant Think Of Ja Morant?
Kevin Durant has stated in a viral quote from an interview that Ja Morant is the most marketable and influential player in the entire National Basketball Association at this time.
According to the veteran player, “He’s the most marketable guy in our league—the face of our league going forward.
There are so many kids that are inspired by what he does.”
With Durant being the 20th-ranked player on the National Basketball Association’s all-time scoring list, this praise shouldn’t go without consideration by both members of the professional league and their fans.
There’s no denying that Ja Morant has become a star from the moment he hit the professional courts alongside the Memphis Grizzlies.
Kevin Durant isn’t the only modern basketball legend to voice his support for the young guard. During his game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, even Justin Jefferson, Skip Bayless, Mike Greenberg, Myles Garrett, Mark Ingram II, and LeBron James were cheering for Ja Morant on Twitter.
However, some players in the professional league feel that Morant has gotten a bit too boastful for their taste.
After claiming that he could have defeated Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls with the Memphis Grizzlies, many players felt that the rookie was out of line for his bold words.
Even after being interviewed about his statement and receiving flack from other players within the National Basketball Association, Ja Morant has no intention of changing the way he speaks about himself.
Instead, he plans to use everyone’s disbelief to fuel his own passion for improvement.
Although Ja Morant may not be playing against many of the biggest basketball legends, he still holds himself to the standard that they were held to.
Morant doesn’t just want to become a legend. He wants to become the greatest legend of all time.
Which Players Inspired Ja Morant?
Ja Morant was inspired to play professional basketball as he grew up watching Allen Iverson and Russell Westbrook, which he explained in an interview with The Pivot podcast.
Morant was drawn to these guards because his favorite part of basketball is watching players taking on even bigger players.
As a basketball fan growing up in the early 2000s, Morant was obsessed with Allen “The Answer” Iverson of the Philadelphia 76ers.
Morant would become a fan of Russell Westbrook as he got older.
Iverson was a legend in Philadelphia thanks to his flashy playstyle both on and off the court.
Those who watched Allen Iverson play can see the similarities between him and Ja Morant, even on appearance level.
Not only was Iverson a fierce opponent, but he was also a major trendsetter for the modern generation of basketball players.
Between the tattoos, headbands, and his love of hip-hop culture, Iverson completely changed the way basketball stars are perceived.
Those who would ask Iverson if he was trying to earn this honor quickly found out that it was simply Iverson trying to be unapologetically himself.
Although Allen Iverson was often punished for going outside of what traditional professional basketball players looked like, he claims that it was all worth it to allow the next generation of basketball players to be themselves without repercussion.
When Iverson heard that Morant was comparing himself to him, Iverson was quick to point out that their playing styles are completely different despite their attitudes being identical.
Iverson believes that Morant is fearless and confident, though some people believe the young player is cocky.
Ja Morant sent Iverson a signed jersey, which the veteran was excited to receive.
With the improvements Morant has been making with each new season, it won’t take him long to catch up to his heroes.
How Was Ja Morant Injured?
Ja Morant injured his knee during a game against the Orlando Magic when Jordan Poole bumped his knee while grabbing the ball.
This contact resulted in Morant suffering a bone bruise and left him unable to play for the rest of the season.
A bone bruise occurs from a traumatic event that results in the microstructure of the bone being disrupted and is normally also met with bleeding from inside the bone.
Some of the most common ways that basketball players experience a bone bruise are after a direct blow to the knee, disruption of the bone where there is already a ligament injury, or repetitive injuries to the bone such as constantly loading the bone.
Memphis Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins claims that the bone bruise was caused by the impact made by Jordan Poole to Ja Morant’s knee, but Associate Professor Dr. Nirav Pandya of the University of California San Francisco Orthopedic Surgery and Director of Sports Medicine at Benioff Children’s Hospital claims that it was “highly unlikely” that Poole could have been the cause.
Dr. Pandya believes that Poole probably could not have pulled the bone below the knee with such force that Morant’s ligament would have been damaged or that the pull was hard enough of a direct hit to do that level of damage.
With the National Basketball Association refusing to punish Jordan Poole, fans of the professional league have begun their own investigations into how Morant could have injured his knee.
A majority of fans believe that the injury occurred in the third quarter of the game when Morant leaped to contest Klay Thompson and banged his knee into Thompson’s leg.
Although Morant believed that the injury was planned by the Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, there’s no way of knowing what actually happened.
How High Can Ja Morant Jump?
Ja Morant is capable of jumping 44 inches in the air, putting him well above the rest of the National Basketball Association’s average of 28 inches.
With Morant standing at 6’2” and having a wingspan of 6’ 7’’, few players can shoot higher than this young guard.
Ja Morant is able to jump higher than his hero Russell Westbrook, who only jumps lower than Morant by two inches.
The record for the highest vertical jump is 48 inches, which is held by Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan.
Not only does Morant have one of the highest vertical jumps in the National Basketball Association, but he is also one of the fastest players in the league as of the 2022 season.
Morant has a running speed of 92 with or without the ball in his hands and a sprint speed of more than 17.2 miles per hour.
The only two players in the league who are faster than Morant are Russell Westbrook of the Los Angeles Lakers and De’Aaron Fox of the Sacramento Kings.
Westbrook has a speed of 96 without the ball and 95 with the ball in his hands, whereas Fox has a speed of 97 with or without the ball.
This put Ja Morant at a faster running speed than players such as Devon Dotson, Derrick White, Ben Simmons, Jalen Suggs, Derrick Rose, and even LeBron James.
Morant is quickly positioning himself as an all-around, top-tier player, leaving his fans excited to see how much will be able to grow as a player as he continues his professional basketball career.
