The NBA is a weird league sometimes with lots of weird rules.
There are all these weird little hacks that players come up with to — not cheat the game — but give themselves advantages by pushing rules as far as they can go. We see it all the time, honestly.
One of the tricks that always makes folks laugh is when the inbounding team rolls the ball up the court. The shot clock doesn’t start until after a player makes contact with the ball, so it gives the inbounding team a pretty lengthy possession.
We’ve seen plenty of players push this rule to the limit — Chris Paul, Marcus Smart, LeBron James, Russell Westbrook.
None of them have quite done it like Ja Morant just did, though.
The Grizzlies point guard burned 20 seconds off of the game clock by just standing over the ball against the Hornets. Literally, that’s all he did. He just stood there. It was wild to watch.
Tick tick tick tick 😂@JaMorant | #BigMemphis pic.twitter.com/T88N4Z8ftZ
— Bally Sports: Grizzlies (@GrizzOnBally) January 5, 2023
This is hilariously brilliant stuff from Ja. The game clock was running but the shot clock was not. Neither the 8-second backcourt count nor the shot clock starts until the ball is touched. Morant would’ve been content to just let the quarter run out if Terry Rozier hadn’t gone and pressured the ball at all.
Is this actually part of basketball? No, not really. But it is brilliant.
LaMelo Ball made a shot for the Hornets around the 3:40 mark but Charlotte didn’t get the ball back until nearly a minute later because of this gamesmanship. As a team with a lead, the goal is to always get to the end of the game with that lead. Finding any way to get to that result faster is always the way you want to go. Morant found an extremely clever way here and he took things over the top.
One could argue that this is in poor taste here — the Grizzlies are up 30 here and this feels like one big embarrassing troll for them. But, hey, man. Rules are rules. Pressure the ball and this doesn’t happen.
There were lots of varying opinions from fans on this.
Ja Morant crazy frfr 😂 https://t.co/lR52Z8Lr18
— the boy (@HOVARANKIN) January 5, 2023
This guy 😂😂😂 https://t.co/hbhZ3GzDvh
— Nick 🌐🥳 (@_nick_lynx_) January 5, 2023
ja’s honestly so wack lol https://t.co/9Np2CsvtAm
— shwaay (@_shwaay) January 5, 2023
As a fan of a team with a player (@smart_MS3) who does this kind of thing regularly, I can confidently say we need to change the rule. This is ridiculous and makes the game look bad https://t.co/ukHW5vm3Bc
— Alan Acosta, Ph.D. (@alanacosta81) January 5, 2023
“I don’t know what the Hornets are doing” 😂😂 https://t.co/hSet3BZPFj
— ✨BULLS✨ (@farheen_a_khan) January 5, 2023
INCREDIBLE https://t.co/AOoxuvS4Pw
— Allen Lentz (@TwoCount_Lentz) January 5, 2023
BRUH. 💀💀💀💀 https://t.co/9tT68ZlXX7
— Reg (@REGGIES_WORLD) January 5, 2023
So you could actually just do this the entire game huh https://t.co/u7XxFGRaY7
— JB (@616jab) January 5, 2023
Incredible heel work by Ja here https://t.co/ubKaEUEjtj
— It’s Jake (@Th3Composer) January 5, 2023
— Reo (@rt__Reo) January 5, 2023
Wasted a whole 20 seconds 😂😂😂 https://t.co/h7hDV2oQ2S
— Ben Showtime Spicer (@BSpicerTV) January 5, 2023
LMAO😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 https://t.co/lTUraR0S7U
— kkmkmm (@yujx_kk) January 5, 2023
This is just wild. We’ll certainly see this from Morant again at some point. Hopefully, the next team is ready for it.
