Ja Morant served his suspension and returned to the court in a grand style, hitting the game-winner against the New Orleans Pelicans.
There has been a lot of turbulence around the point guard in the last couple of months. However, it seems that it’s all behind him now. He finally returned to the NBA court in a game where he was the standout player and the hero. Nevertheless, after the game, he emphasized that he had been preparing for this moment for a full eight months.
“Emotionally, it wasn’t too hard for me. Obviously, I’ve been prepping for this for almost 8 months. It’s been 8 months since I played a game. I’m confident in the work I was putting in, trying to be in the best shape possible to get out there and be out there for the guys. As far as going down early, I kind of expected it – not by 20, whatever, but all good. I kind of expected to be some jitters, guys not knowing what to do.
Obviously, I haven’t been out there for 25 games. They had a style of play, they had to adapt wihtout me on the floor. Me coming in, I don’t want to change anything, but I also have to be Ja. I felt like in the first half I was trying to figure the game out. In the second half, in the locker room, I just told the team to stay together, that we can make a run. Normally, when that happens, when you have a big lead, it’s hard to keep it in the NBA – it’s a game of runs“, Ja Morant said.
![Ja Morant](https://basketballsphere.com/en/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Ja-Morant.jpg)
Game winner
“I had a conversation with Desmond Bane. I asked him what he wanted to run late in those situations. I think I made two layups back-to-back before the game-winner. When I was going to take off and come down, I felt like my calves were about to start cramping. That timeout we had to draw the last play up, I actually had them massage gun my calves.
I told Des, asked him if we wanted to get an easy bucket. Jaren had a smaller defender on him, I asked ‘should we just go to the post at the time?’ He told me, ‘f**k no, you’re getting the ball’. At that point, I just had to lock in and deliver, and I did”
Relationship with Adam Silver
“It was good. We came in, he checked on me to see how I was doing. Pretty much, he was telling me how excited he was to be able to have me back playing. He said, ‘Enjoy the moment and stay locked in’. I actually plan on talking with him more often even though I’m back playing just to continue to build that relationship with him.”