Judge dismisses lawsuit filed against NBA player Ja Morant over a fight during a pickup game

A judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a teenager who accused two-time NBA All-Star Ja Morant of punching him during a pickup game at the home of the Memphis Grizzlies guard’s parents in 2022.

Shelby County Circuit Judge Carol Chumney issued an order Monday dismissing the lawsuit, saying in her ruling that Morant acted in self-defense and was immune from civil liability in the suit filed by Joshua Holloway, who plays basketball for Samford University and just completed his sophomore season.

Holloway was 17 and in high school when he was invited to play pickup basketball with other people at the home of Morant’s parents in July 2022. The daylong series of games ended when Morant punched Holloway once in the face. Holloway then sued Morant, alleging the NBA player had assaulted him.

Morant claimed he acted in self-defense after Holloway aggressively threw the basketball at him with a one-handed, baseball-style pass that 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 to see if their teammates are ready, often before starting a game or after a foul.

Morant testified during a December 2023 hearing that he was worried about getting hurt after the teen hit him in the face with the ball, bumped him in the chest, balled his fists and got into a fighting stance before Morant punched Holloway.

Chumney ruled in April 2024 that Morant “enjoys a presumption of civil immunity” from liability under Tennessee law.

The NBA player’s lawyers had argued Morant was protected under Tennessee’s “stand your ground” law, allowing people who feel threatened at their homes to act with force in certain situations. The law is used in criminal cases, but the judge cleared the way for Morant’s lawyers to apply it in this civil case.

After the April 2024 presumption of immunity ruling, it was Holloway’s turn to prove that Morant was not free from liability under the self-defense claim. Holloway testified during a hearing this past January that Morant was actually the aggressor and used disproportionate force by punching Holloway.

In her Monday ruling, Chumney said Holloway’s testimony about the incident was not credible and contradicts testimony from other witnesses. Among those was former NBA player Mike Miller, who was at the house when the fight occurred. Miller testified that Holloway hitting Morant “in the face with a basketball ‘kind of started everything,’” the judge wrote in her April 2024 ruling.

Chumney also noted in Monday’s ruling that both Morant and Holloway hold roles as leaders in the respective basketball arenas, “and in the limelight, each have unique opportunities to inspire youth and demonstrate mature leadership.”

“This Court sincerely hopes that moving forward they each will be able to spend more of their time on the ‘court’ and less at the ‘courthouse,’” the judge wrote.