The referee found that Ja Morant acted in self-defense during the on-field fight

Ruling in the Morant case, Judge Carol Chumney writes, “if you start a fight, you should be ready to end it.”

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Ja Morant acted in self-defense when a young person accused the two-time NBA All-Star of hitting him during a game at the home of the Memphis Grizzlies guard’s parents in 2022, a judge ruled.

Shelby County Circuit Court Judge Carol Chumney cited Tennessee law on when self-defense may be raised, and in her ruling Monday, she wrote that Morant “benefits from the presumption of civil immunity.”

The judge wrote that “a prosecutor generally cannot claim self-defense; if you start a fight, you should be ready to stop it,” based on Tennessee law. She also noted that the only instigator in this case was the plaintiff, Joshua Holloway, while everyone else just desired to play basketball.

Mike Miller, a former NBA player who was home when the fight broke out, testified that Holloway hit Morant “in the face with a basketball ‘that kind of started it all,'” the judge wrote in the ruling.

Additional evidence supported this claim and none of it contradicted it, the judge wrote.

Holloway’s lawsuit alleges that Morant assaulted him during a match played on July 26, 2022. Then, at the age of 17, Holloway was invited to play on the Morant family’s private full-size court. Holloway now plays basketball for Samford.

Morant claimed he was defending himself after Holloway aggressively threw the basketball at him with a one-handed baseball-style pass that hit him in the face during a check-ball situation. A “check” is a standard practice in pick-up games, where two players from the opposing team pass the ball to one another to see if their teammates are ready, often before the start of play or after a foul.

Morant, now 24, testified during a December hearing that he was anxious he is likely to be injured after the teenager punched him in the chest, clenched his fists and took a fighting stance before Morant punched Holloway.

Morant’s childhood friend, Davonte Pack, can be a defendant in the lawsuit. Pack admitted punching Holloway once and knocking him to the ground. Morant was not charged with against the law, but Pack was charged with assault. This charge was later dismissed.

The December hearing focused on Morant’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit based on the so-called Tennessee statute.

The NBA player’s lawyers argued that Morant is immune from liability under a law that allows individuals who feel threatened in their very own home to make use of force in certain situations. The law is applied in criminal cases, but an earlier ruling by the same judge allowed Morant’s lawyers to use it in a civil case.

The ruling also pointed to testimony that Holloway was allowed to remain at the Morant home to look at television, play video games or help himself to food.

Morant tore the labrum in his right shoulder in early January. The season-ending injury required surgery, and the season began with the NBA suspending Morant for the first 25 games for an Internet video of the defenseman flashing a gun.

The video shows Morant sitting in the passenger seat of a automotive and was released after he served an eight-game suspension in March for an additional video in which he displayed a gun at a Denver-area strip club.

Morant apologized for each videos.

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