Ja Morant Does Gun Gesture In Closing Seconds Of Grizzlies Loss To Warriors In Astonishingly Dumb Scene

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The Memphis Grizzlies fired head coach Taylor Jenkins with nine games left in the regular season and have lost eight of their last 10 games. The Grizzlies are struggling mightily, and Ja Morant isn't exactly helping take any heat off of the franchise's status amid its crash down the Western Conference standings.

The Grizzlies welcomed the Golden State Warriors to town on Tuesday, and while all was fine with the game knotted at 103-103 after three quarters, Memphis completely folded in the final frame to fall 134-125. While Steph Curry's 52-point performance should be the top storyline coming out of the game, Morant acting like he's holding a shotgun aimed at Buddy Hield and the Warriors' bench is a topic of conversation from the contest.

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Morant is far from the only player in the NBA to do a gun gesture on the floor or from the bench, but he is the only player in the league to do it who was seen on Instagram Live brandishing an actual gun twice in two months during the 2023 season.

What makes Morant's latest gun move even more ridiculous and embarrassing is that he pulled it out with Tuesday night's game against the Warriors essentially already over.

Jimmy Butler hit free throws to give Golden State a 132-125 lead with 20 seconds left in the contest, and Morant thought that was the perfect time to pull out his imaginary gun and point it at the Warriors' bench.

Morant and Hield were each hit with technical fouls after their back and forth, but one of the two looked way more foolish than the other, and it wasn't Hield.

None of it makes sense. The gun gesture in general, the timing of it, the Grizzlies crumbling before our very eyes at the end of the regular season. You have the face of the franchise in Morant, who reportedly played a huge role in getting Jenkins fired, doing incredibly dumb things on the floor while losing a very meaningful basketball game.

Memphis should still find its way into the postseason, but outside what would be an incredibly surprising deep run in the playoffs, this upcoming offseason for the Grizzlies could easily be the most fascinating in the entire NBA.

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Mark covers all sports at OutKick while keeping a close eye on the world of professional golf. He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before earning his master's degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. Before joining OutKick, he wrote for various outlets, including SB Nation, The Spun, and BroBible. Mark was also a writer for the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate in 2016, when the team won the World Series. He's still waiting for his championship ring to arrive. Follow him on Twitter @itismarkharris.