Ja Morant’s 25-game suspension on Friday is among the longest the NBA has handed out for behavior on or off the court. The two-time All Star was sidelined following an investigation over a second social media post of Morant displaying a firearm within a three-month span. Other players who have received extended suspensions include:
JA MORANT, MARCH-JUNE, 2023
Before Morant’s 25-game suspension, the No. 2 overall pick of 2019 was sidelined eight games by the NBA for flashing a handgun in a social media the Memphis Grizzlies guard livestreamed himself from a Denver-area club in the early hours of March 4.
TYREKE EVANS, MAY 2019
The Indiana Pacers guard was banned at least two years for violating the league’s anti-drug policy. The 2010 NBA Rookie of the Year was eligible to apply for reinstatement in 2021
O.J. MAYO, July 2016
The No. 3 overall pick of 2008 was dismissed and disqualified by the NBA for violating the league’s anti-drug program, the first player to receive that punishment in a decade. He was allowed to apply for reinstatement after two years but never played in the NBA again.
GILBERT ARENAS AND JARVIS CRITTENDON, JANUARY 2010
Arenas missed the final 50 games of the regular season after originally being suspended indefintitely, while Crittendon was suspended for 38 for bringing guns into the Washington Wizards’ locker room Dec. 21 and displaying the unloaded weapons to each other after a fight on a team flight home from Phoenix.
CHRIS “BIRDMAN” ANDERSEN, JANUARY 2006
He missed 193 games after being “dismissed and disqualified” for a third violation of the league’s anti-drug program. He was sidelined until being reinstated in March 2008 and won a championship with Miami in 2013.
RON ARTEST, NOVEMBER 2004
Now known as Metta Sandiford-Artest. Suspended for 73 games and the playoffs over the “Malice at the Palace” that started as a disagreement between the Indiana Pacers forward and Detroit Pistons power forward Ben Wallace. The NBA issued some of the harshest penalties in its history by banning nine players for more than 140 games with Artest’s suspension the strongest ever levied for a fight during a game. Wallace and Pacers players Stephen Jackson, Jermaine O’Neal and Anthony Johnson all received significant suspensions.
LATRELL SPREWELL, DECEMBER 1997
His one year suspension was the longest suspension in league history at the time, for assaulting Golden State coach P.J. Carlesimo. The Warriors already had terminated the final three years of the All-Star guard’s four-year, $32 million contract. He returned and played five seasons with the Knicks and two with Minnesota.
KERMIT WASHINGTON, DECEMBER 1977
The Lakers forward was fined $10,000 and suspended 60 days for punching Rudy Tomjanovich of the Houston Rockets, shattering Tomjanovich’s face and nearly killing him. Tomjanovich made a full recovery, was an All-Star in 1979 and won two NBA titles as the Rockets’ head coach in 1994 and 1995.
