Grizzlies' Ja Morant, on criticism: 'I feel like I’ve been the villain for the last two years now'

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MIAMI (AP) — It was the sort of moment that Ja Morant craves. He hit a game-winning jumper at the buzzer to lift the Memphis Grizzlies past the Miami Heat, then skipped down the court listening to the silence he created.

He was the villain. And he doesn't mind.

“I feel like I’ve been the villain for the last two years now," Morant said. "Not even just to this crowd.”

Morant has certainly spent plenty of time in that role. His ability to take over games was on display Thursday night; the game-winner capped a 30-point night and helped Memphis snap a four-game losing streak. That could have been the story.

It wasn't. At least, not the whole story.

Morant's history with guns — real ones and now pretend ones — is a talking point again. He was suspended twice by the NBA in 2023, once for eight games and the other for 25, for showing guns on social media, first in a Denver-area nightclub and then for having one in the passenger seat of a vehicle.

He was criticized this week for making a finger-shooting motion in the direction of the Golden State Warriors' bench, evidently avoiding league sanction because Buddy Hield of the Warriors was doing the same his way. And in Miami on Thursday night, there was more celebrations involving him mimicking the act of shooting a gun toward his own bench after a made 3-pointer. It made headlines.

“I'm well aware,” Morant said. “I'm well aware.”

He was asked if the criticism bothers him. He indicated that it doesn't.

“I'm kind of used to it,” Morant said. “I was pretty much a villain for two years now. Every little thing, if somebody can say something negative about me, it's going to be out there. So, yeah. I don't care no more.”

The Grizzlies had nothing negative to say Thursday.

Morant had a tough first half, three points on 1 for 7 shooting. He was 10 for 15 in the second half, getting 27 of his 30 points in that span — including the game-winner, a play where he knew exactly what he was going to do for the entire 13.8 seconds of the possession.

“I mean, that’s beautiful to watch," said Grizzlies interim coach Tuomas Iisalo, who got his first win in his fourth attempt since taking over. "It gives a lot of confidence, not just for me as a coach, but especially for the whole team, to have a guy like that.”

The win lifted Memphis out of the play-in tournament range and back to No. 6 — which will be the last guaranteed playoff spot — in the Western Conference. And Morant celebrated afterward, which was to be expected, after he was able to come through in a hostile road environment.

“I think anyone would relish that,” Grizzlies center Jaren Jackson Jr. said. “But him specifically, I think he thrives off that. I mean, I wouldn't boo him. I wouldn't boo him.”

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