The hearing for the civil case related to an incident in which Ja Morant punched a teen continued Tuesday morning in Shelby County Circuit Court.
Morant’s father, Tee, finished his testimony after beginning on Monday. Davonte Pack, Ja Morant’s close friend, also testified on Tuesday.
Joshua Holloway, the teenager Morant punched and who filed the lawsuit, was set to testify but did not.
On Monday, Ja Morant spent hours walking attorneys through the July 2022 incident that occurred during a pickup basketball game at his home in Eads. Morant said he punched Holloway after Holloway threw a basketball at him in a threatening way during a “check ball.” Morant performed check ball demonstrations with both his and Holloway’s attorneys.
The self-defense immunity hearing is slated to take place through Wednesday, and multiple people who were at Morant’s house the day of the altercation have also been subpoenaed, including Pack, Morant’s co-defendant in the case; Mike Miller; Trey Draper; and deputies from the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office.
Criminal charges in the case were filed against Pack after Holloway’s attorney, Rebecca Adelman, filed a deposition in which Pack admitted to hitting Holloway after Morant did. Other depositions described Morant’s punch as a glancing blow, but Holloway is said to have fallen down after Pack’s punch.
Pack’s criminal case was dismissed Nov. 21, and Morant was never criminally charged in relation to the incident.
The hearing comes about a week before Morant is scheduled to return from his 25-game suspension. He is eligible to return Dec. 19 in New Orleans, and Memphis Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins said Friday that he expects Morant to be “full go” for that game.
Live updates from second day of hearing
Court adjourns for the day
5:10 p.m: Proceedings will resume around 10 a.m. Wednesday morning.
Davonte Pack begins testimony
3:15 p.m: Carter has been going over some of Pack’s background history, much of which was already discussed in a deposition over the summer. Pack completed a semester of his MBA, but returned to Memphis in early 2022 since he was not eligible to play basketball in college anymore.
“We developed a bond because we are similar,” Pack said of growing close to Ja Morant.
Pack says after he graduated college, he took basketball as a way to get “cardio and a good sweat in” and as a way to “be with family.”
Now getting to the day of the altercation from Pack’s perspective, with questions from Carter slowly filling in background. Pack says he had seen Holloway once before, during a pickup basketball game at FACS.
More discussion about how a pickup game starts — with a check-ball — and Carter says, “I think this court will take judicial notice about what a check-ball is. I think the whole world knows at this point.” Chumney laughed at the remark, but agreed to take notice.
“12 ain’t lifting no weights,” Pack says when Carter asks if he knows how strong Ja Morant is. “Now he is, but he ain’t used to.”
“Nah, I think we ran the court that day,” Pack says when asked if his team lost a game that day. Holloway was never on Pack and Morant’s team, Pack says.
Pack says the speed of the games started to slow down as everyone got tired. He says he was not paying attention to anything until he saw Holloway roll the ball at Ja Morant. He says everyone was saying things like, “Come on bro, check the ball.”
“I don’t know how (Holloway) passed it, the ball just came at Ja quick,” Pack said. “That’s not how you check a ball. He didn’t even check his team.”
Pack said he doesn’t know if the ball hit Morant, but that he just saw Morant flinch.
“I saw a step, boom, (Morant) hit,” Pack says. Now there’s a demonstration between Pack and Carter.
“He was about to fight,” Pack said of Holloway. “And (Morant) was like, ‘I’m not about to get hit.'”
“After they went shoulder to shoulder, Holloway’s feet were one in front of the other. It was a different stance,” Pack says. Carter asked him if Holloway was in a fighting stance, which Pack agreed to. Carter then asked if Morant also got into a fighting stance, but Pack said Morant “already hit him,” so Morant had stepped back.
Pack and Carter just did a demonstration, and Pack had his fists raised like a boxer to show what he said Holloway was doing. When Holloway got into that stance, Pack said he hit Holloway, who then fell.
Pack says he and Morant went across the half court line, away from Holloway, after the punch.
Carter: “How many times did Mr. Morant hit Mr. Holloway?”
Pack: “Once.”
Carter: “How many times did you hit Mr. Holloway?”
Pack: “Once.”
Pack says he does not know who escorted Holloway off the court. Pack also says he heard Holloway say something in reference to shooting. Pack’s version was Holloway saying “I’m gonna light it up like a firework.”
“Can you think of an easier pass to make than an unguarded pass to someone standing right in front of you?” Carter asks.
The basketball is back out, and Carter is demonstrating with Pack. Carter is having Pack throw the ball in different places, trying to show that it’s easy to aim where you want it to go. Pack threw a couple to Carter’s chest, one to his thighs, and one at his head. All appeared to be on target.
Carter, talking about regulation basketball, asks Pack what would happen if a captain, before the game starts, were to “fire” a ball at the opposing captain’s face. “They’d probably get disqualified,” Pack says.
Carter is done with his line of questioning. Time for cross-examination.
Ballin is listing the people who “provide” for Pack, including Tee and Jamie Morant in the past, and now Ja Morant. A similar line of questioning to Tee Morant, with Ballin asking how he hired Butler Snow attorneys. Pack says he does not know.
“Did the force of the punch…the blow…the hit, result in Mr. Holloway stepping back from Mr. Morant?” Ballin asks. Pack says it did.
Ballin asked if a chest pass could be thrown and hit someone’s feet. Pack says no. Ballin is asserting that Ja Morant was not ready for the pass from Holloway that hit him in the head.
Ballin just slammed his fist on the wall in front of the jury box and yelled “What you on?” to impersonate how Morant said it. Pack says Morant was not that aggressive in asking Holloway that question.
Ballin is asking Pack about the allegation that Morant said “should I do it to him?” before the punch.
“I didn’t even see him fall,” Pack said of Holloway falling after being punched by Pack. This was because Pack said he immediately grabbed Morant and went away towards half court. Pack confirmed that he told Morant, “We don’t need to be doing this,” as he walked Morant away from the altercation.
Ballin: “If the captain throws the ball at the other captain, and the ball is gone, there’s no danger.”
Ballin says pulling pants up could be offensive or defensive. Pack said no, and that pulling your pants up was an indication of wanting to fight.
“Nobody has asked about the basketball, did it have spikes or anything dangerous?” Ballin asked. Pack shook his head and said no. Ballin asks if the whole thing could have been avoided, and Pack says yes.
Pack is done testifying.
Families meet before restarting proceedings
3:05 p.m: Both families and the attorneys have left and are doing a conference outside the courtroom.
Donte White takes the stand
2:00 p.m: White, who was at the house during the incident, is now answering questions about that day. He was an assistant coach for Teniya Morant’s AAU team.
“Basketball is an emotional sport, it’s a physical sport,” White says. “Guys have words about it, but that’s normal.”
White says he had not met Holloway before the incident.
“He didn’t look like he was in danger, it was just a confrontation,” White says. “His emotions were high… He was more animated than most, so we had to separate him from the crowd.”
White says Tee Morant and Mike Miller came to escort Holloway from the court. Tee Morant had said he came out from the house and met Holloway, Jamie Morant and Mike Miller away from the court, since Tee was cooking inside at the time.
White said he did not see any bruises on Holloway’s face, and he did not look injured.
It’s now time for cross-examination.
After a couple objections from Perry over refreshing White’s recollection of prior testimony from his deposition, White said Ja Morant was pulled away from Holloway, and adds that “they were both pulled from one another.”
It was more so Morant who needed to be restrained, he said.
Ballin has been questioning witnesses with a lot of intensity, and was called for badgering by Perry earlier. That badgering objection was not sustained, and Ballin said, “You haven’t seen badgering yet.”
“I have now made the same objection eight times,” Perry says, as Ballin and Perry go at one another. “Mr. Ballin needs to get the message or finish his examination.”
Court recesses for lunch break
Proceedings will resume around 1:30 p.m. Davonte Pack and Joshua Holloway are expected to testify.
Teniya Morant takes the stand
10:50 a.m: Teniya Morant, the sister of Ja Morant, is now testifying. Morant plays basketball at Mississippi Valley State University.
“Basketball means a lot to my family because all of us played basketball,” she says. “It’s a family thing, I guess.”
Morant is asked about the safety of playing at-home pickup basketball games. “It’s a lot safer, can’t just anybody come into your home,” she says.
“We had some extensive demonstrations of a check-ball yesterday, but can you explain it briefly?” Morant attorney Will Perry asks.
Perry now shifts to the day of the incident. Morant says there were “like 30 people” at the house.
“There was too many,” Morant says of how many games there were. “I thought it was good basketball. It was entertaining, there was lots of good talent from everybody.”
Morant said the last game was supposed to start, and Holloway and Ja were supposed to check the ball. Morant went on to describe almost an exact retelling of the altercation, saying Holloway threw a “baseball throw” at Ja Morant’s head. Some of the previous depositions that were filed have called the pass from Holloway a chest pass.
Holloway has his lips puckered like he ate something sour as Teniya Morant was describing Holloway pulling up his pants.
“So many people stood up, trying to break it up. They say TAP (Pack) hit him. I don’t know, I couldn’t see it,” Morant says.
“Josh said he was gonna come back and ‘light this house up like fireworks,'” Morant said. That echoes what both Ja Morant and Tee Morant said in their testimonies.
Holloway attorney Rebecca Adelman will now do the cross-examination.
Adelman is asking if Teniya looks up to Ja, and asking if all of the “kids around the country” look up to him. Morant agrees. Adelman asks if Morant is friends with Holloway.
“We were,” Morant says.
Adelman is asking where people spend the night when coming to the Morant homes. Ja Morant’s parents and Teniya live at 211, and Ja Morant lives at 220. According to Teniya, people spend the night at 220, not 211. Adelman has been referring to Teniya Morant’s friends as “kids,” who were high schoolers at the time of the incident. She has referred to Ja Morant’s friends as “guys” or “men.”
Throughout the hearing, Adelman and Ballin have tried to establish Ja Morant as not only the best basketball player on the court, but also as the fastest and strongest one out there. The tactic seems to be an attempt to sow seeds of doubt that Morant feared he would be injured by another player, specifically Holloway.
Perry objects to Adelman asking if there was anyone stronger than Ja Morant, but Adelman rephrases it to ask if Teniya believed Morant to be the strongest on the court. Teniya said yes. Adelman then asks if Morant was stronger than Holloway, which Teniya agreed with.
Teniya said she had never seen Holloway fight, seen Holloway with a gun or heard Holloway talk about guns until the incident.
“You don’t consider Joshua to be a liar?” Adelman asks. “I don’t,” Morant says.
Adelman asserts that getting an invite to Ja Morant’s house is “a big deal,” and so is not getting invited back. Morant agrees. “Punching your superstar brother in the face would jeopardize coming back to your house, right?” Adelman asks. “Yes,” Morant says. Adelman had preceded that by asking if people avoided doing things that would cause you to not be invited over again.
She’s asking Morant similar questions about missing passes, getting hit by basketballs and having body contact with other players.
“Have you accidentally threw a ball and hit someone with the ball?” Adelman asks. “I don’t understand the question,” Morant says. Adelman asks the question again, and Morant asks if that was a passing situation. Adelman says that was what she meant, and Morant said she has passed a basketball and hit someone before.
There is now another illustration of where spectators were located on the court during the game. Morant seems to be indicating a very similar illustration to previous testimony from her brother and father.
Adelman is now asking about the MBNO brand. “Is it also sort of, a brotherhood?” Adelman asked. Morant says yes. Adelman takes out a basketball.
Adelman now pushing Morant on where Ja Morant was hit with the basketball. Morant says she can’t remember where it hit Ja, adding that she only saw his head go back. Perry has objected twice to Adelman asking the same question, and Morant was unable to respond differently. Chumney agrees with Perry, saying Morant answered she could not see where Ja was hit.
“He attempted to (catch the ball), but it came quick,” Morant says. “Everybody had stood up when the ball hit him in the face to see what was going to happen next.”
Adelman is asking what Morant means when she says Holloway squared up. Morant said this meant he was going to fight, and Adelman asks what she meant by fight. “Like hit one another,” Morant says.
Morant says she saw Holloway hit the ground at some point, and then everyone gathered around Holloway “to help him up.” Ja, she says, was already pulled away. Morant said she was held back by another person who thought she was going to be aggressive. Adelman asks what she was going to do, and she says she was going to check on Holloway.
Morant says she has not checked on Holloway since the incident. Adelman is finished with the cross-examination and Perry is back for a re-direct.
Perry: “You ever seen anybody hit in the face during a check-ball?”
Morant: “No, never.”
Perry: “Have you ever hit someone in the face with a basketball in a check-ball?”
Morant: “No.”
Perry asks if Holloway throwing the ball at Ja looked like an accident. Morant says she does not think it was an accident. When asked why Holloway’s behavior that day felt like a betrayal, Morant says she had trusted him to come over to her house and she was surprised by how he behaved around her brother that day.
Morant steps down from the witness stand after Perry finishes his line of questioning.
Tee Morant resumes testimony
9:25 a.m: Tee Morant, the father of Ja Morant, will resume testifying. He started testifying yesterday but stopped when the court broke for lunch.
Morant is talking about leaving the basketball court during the pickup game and going inside to cook.
“Every couple of minutes I would look out the window and see what was going on in the game,” Morant says. “I looked up and there seemed to be an altercation on the court, and I went outside and my wife was bringing Joshua to the house.”
“My wife was saying, ‘He has to go, he has to go,’ and I asked, ‘What’s going on?'” Morant says. When Mike Miller and Morant escorted Holloway to the car, Morant said he heard Holloway say he would “light this up like the Fourth of July or something like that,” with Morant saying he omitted profanity, and Jamie Morant said she would call the police. Tee Morant said he would “handle” it with Miller.
This was all discussed in Morant’s deposition, which was filed months ago.
Morant said he spoke with Holloway’s father about calming them down. During that call, Morant said Holloway was talking about wanting to fight. Holloway’s father said he wanted to sit Holloway and Ja Morant to talk things out, Morant says.
It’s now time for cross examination. Holloway attorney Leslie Ballin will handle it.
Morant says he was the assistant coach on Ja’s AAU team because he never wanted to coach his son, only to train him. Ballin is asking Morant about what he believed to be discrepancies between the deposition and Morant’s testimony. Ballin is asking about Davonte Pack and Ja Morant playing recreation league basketball or AAU basketball. Morant has said Ja and Pack played each other in rec league, then formed the AAU team. Things are tense as Ballin and Morant attorney Keenan Carter are getting into it over the line of questioning, and Ballin apparently misread a quote from Pack’s deposition.
Morant says Pack is part of the family.
Ballin asked when Morant’s family hired Butler Snow, the firm representing Morant, and Carter objects to the relevancy. Ballin says this was like “circling the wagons,” and Chumney allows it. Ballin is asking Morant who paid for the Butler Snow attorneys. Carter objects, but Chumney allows it citing credibility.
Morant couldn’t answer many of those questions, saying he isn’t sure when the attorneys were hired and wasn’t sure who is paying for their representation.
Ballin is asking who in Ja’s friend group is part of the MBNO brand. Morant says they are all “brothers,” and that he is part of that brand.
“Would (Holloway’s) demeanor be consistent with being struck by two grown men?” Ballin asked. “I didn’t know that then,” Morant says of the punch. Morant agrees with Ballin’s assertion that he called Holloway’s father to smooth things out because “something wrong had happened.”
Ballin: “Would you loan Mike Miller money if he asked, that kind of friendship?”
Morant: “I don’t think he needs money.”
Ballin asks if Morant would trust Miller’s testimony as accurate. Morant says he would.
Ballin is now asking about part of Morant’s deposition where Morant had said Ja was upset in high school that he wasn’t getting many looks during college recruitment. Ballin asked when “beneath no one” became a family mantra, which Morant said means, “Always be the best on the court.”
Ballin says Ja Morant was the strongest player in 2022. Tee Morant laughs and says, “Never, that’s pushing it.” Morant says there are “plenty” of point guards stronger than Ja Morant.
Ballin asks if a 17-year-old kid was stronger than Ja, and Morant says “there are 17-year-olds stronger than my son.”
What message did Morant give to Holloway the day of the pickup games?
“If he puts on his hooping shorts and his jersey on just like you, don’t play him like he’s Ja Morant, play him like you’re better,” he says.
Tempers are hot after a back and forth between Morant and Ballin about semantics. Attorneys are now conferring at the bench with Judge Carol Chumney.
Back to the testimony. Ballin asks if Morant spoke with anyone who saw the incident about what happened. Morant says he didn’t think it was “that important.”
Ballin listed schools, including Germantown High School and Christian Brothers High School, and asked if Ja Morant played pickup basketball at them. Tee Morant said he has.
Morant’s testimony is now completed.