Judge Rules That Ja Morant's Lawyers Can Argue Self-Defense In Pick-Up Game Incident

Ja Morant has a few issues on his plate these days, but one of them is currently moving through court. Now, a judge has ruled that Morant's legal team can argue that he punched a 17-year-old during a pick-up basketball game at his house in self-defense.

Morant is currently facing a lawsuit in civil court over the June 2022 incident. Morant and his friend Davonte Pack were alleged to have punched Joshua Holloway during a pick-up game that got nasty. Holloway was 17 years old at the time of the incident.

Holloway filed his initial lawsuit last year, which led to Morant countersuing and claiming that Holloway had been the aggressor in the incident.

The lawyers representing the Grizzlies star acknowledged that Morant did punch Holloway. That wasn't up for debate, what was, was why he did it.

Morant's team wanted to argue self-defense. In fact, in a previous motion, they had argued that Morant should not be held liable under Tennessee's "stand your ground" law.

According to the Daily Mail, they've now been given tentative approval from a Tennessee judge to make that argument.

Ja Morant continues to deal with off-court issues. (Photo by Adam Pantozzi/NBAE via Getty Images)

There's Still Going To Be Debate Over Morant's Self-Defense Defense

The Daily Mail reported that the next step is for lawyers to argue about whether or not the law can be applied this way under the state constitution. This would include lawyers from the Tennesee Attorney General's Office.

Earlier this week, one of Holloway's lawyers argued that they couldn't use the "stand your ground" law in his defense. They argued that this was because it isn't a criminal case and that the "stand your ground" law couldn't be used to dismiss a civil case.

There will surely be more to this one.

This news comes shortly after an arrest warrant was issued for Pack

While Morant waits for all of this to shake out, he already knows one thing: he'll get some time off next season. He'll miss the first 25 games next season thanks to a suspension he received in June.

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