Memphis Grizzlies: Ja Morant wins NBA MIP then gifts award to teammate

Memphis Grizzlies superstar Ja Morant was named the 2021-22 NBA Most Improved Player by voters for his outstanding play during the regular season.

The third-year player out of Murray State took a massive leap in his game and was named a starter during the 2022 NBA All-Star Game back in February.

His stats from 2020-21 to 2021-22 are mind-boggling. Last season, Morant was really good, averaging 19.1 PPG, 7.4 APG, and 4.0 RPG. He helped the Grizzlies win the Play-In Tournament and even stole a game from the Utah Jazz in the first-round of last year’s playoffs.

This season, Morant averaged 27.4 PPG, 6.7 APG, and 5.7 RPG and is a big reason why the Grizzlies finished with the second-best record in the NBA during the regular season.

Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant gifts award to teammate Desmond Bane

Just a couple of hours after fans learned that Morant beat out San Antonio Spurs guard Dejonte Murray and Cleveland’s Darius Garland for the MIP award, a photo started circulating around Instagram of a photo of a white box with the caption, “@_dbane1 I left your award in your kitchen gang. You deserve it killa.”

Shortly after that, Desmond Bane posted a video to Twitter of him discovering the gift in his kitchen. It’s the Most Improved Player award— Ja Morant has gifted it to his teammate.

Desmond Bane is 100% worthy of the award, something Ja Morant tried to spotlight any time he had the opportunity to do so.

Bane’s leap is perhaps even more impressive and improbable. Bane, the former No. 30 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, had a decent rookie season last year.

In the 2020-21 season, Bane averaged 9.2 PPG, 2.1 RPG, and 1.7 APG in 22.3 MPG.

In the 2021-22 season, he was promoted to the starting lineup and logged an averaged of 29.8 MPG. He scored 18.2 PPG, 4.4 RPG, and 2.7 APG through the regular season.

He’s developed into the second-best player on this Grizzlies squad and has been pegged as a future member of an “All-NBA team someday” by The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor.

The Memphis Grizzlies are in the midst of an intense first-round playoff series vs the Minnesota Timberwolves.