The Memphis Grizzlies‘ point guard in Ja Morant is one of the most electrifying players in the entire NBA. The soon-to-be third-year guard out of Murray State may still have some wrinkles to get out in his game, but there are very few players who are more exciting to watch.
One of the key parts of this is Morant’s ability to make plays with the basketball. Unlike a lot of point guards, Morant is a pass-first guard. Yes, he can get a bucket virtually whenever he wants, but his assist numbers are the most impressive part of his career thus far with 7.3 per game in his career.
That said, Morant’s playmaking ability pales in comparison with his sheer athleticism. There might not be an active player in the league who matches up with his speed and jumping abilities. The only two that come close are De’Aaron Fox and Russell Westbrook.
This athleticism results in more than a handful of highlight plays. Heck, during the season, it seems like Morant is throwing down highlight-reel-worthy dunks every other day. Unfortunately, we may never get to see these dunks in an NBA Dunk Contest.
Memphis Grizzlies PG Ja Morant says he’d have to get paid $1,000,000 to participate in the dunk contest
In short, the sentence above states that Ja Morant will never participate in a dunk contest. In an interview with Bleacher Report’s Taylor Rooks, Morant had the following to say when asked if he’d ever participate in the All-Star weekend competition. Here’s what the Grizzly guard had to say when asked what it would take to get him to join.
"“A million dollars.”"
He elaborated by speaking on the fact that in-game dunks have taken over the excitement of the NBA Dunk Contest.
"“I feel like now you just see so many crazy dunks in-game that when the dunk contest comes, you don’t appreciate the dunk as much.”"
Morant has a well-known distaste for the judging of the NBA Dunk Contest, as is evident by his tweets during the All-Star Weekend contest. Here’s one of his most noteworthy tweets.
https://twitter.com/JaMorant/status/1228885208285556737?s=20
And in Ja Morant’s defense, the judges have, in fact, been wilding in recent years. For starters, it seems like it’s too easy to earn a perfect score of 50 on a dunk — rather than seeing one or two per year, it seems like every other contestant earns a 50. At the same time, a lot of the dunks that have an extremely high level of difficulty will earn low ratings for no real reason.
In all likelihood, Ja Morant simply does not want to risk injury for a contest that, generally speaking, doesn’t even determine the best dunker in the NBA.