The first two times Ja Morant spoke of what derailed his NBA season and sent his life into tumult, he spoke in the singular.

Morant sat across from former player Jalen Rose, in an exclusive interview partly broadcast Wednesday on ESPN’s “NBA Countdown” pre-game show. He had just met with NBA commissioner Adam Silver in New York and had just been granted a timetable for a return to action that could have Morant back on the court with the Grizzlies in a week. 

Morant apologized “to the league, myself, my teammates, my family for putting that negativity towards all of us with a bad decision.” 

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“I made a bad mistake,” said Morant a moment later. 

The bad decision and bad mistake in question was Morant’s Instagram Live broadcast in the early morning of March 4, from a private room at the Denver strip club Shotgun Willie’s, in which he appeared to be intoxicated and appeared to be flashing a gun. 

Silver, in a public statement, labeled this incident “irresponsible, reckless and potentially very dangerous,” while levying an eight-game suspension retroactive to that moment. 

As the interview continued, Morant transitioned from the singular to the plural.

“I can see the image I painted (of) myself with my recent mistakes,” said Morant in his next breath. 

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“I realize my past mistakes (aren’t) being a good role model,” he said. 

As a basketball player, Morant is known in part for his transition adjustments. But this one was far more important and necessary than anything on the court.

As Morant returns to the Grizzlies on Monday and likely to the floor soon after, it is imperative that he and those around him recognize that his recent absence was not about one bad decision in Denver. 

Rather, it was the culmination of a perilous pattern. 

Speaking before a game last week, Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins underscored that what Morant did in Denver wasn’t a bolt from the blue, but rather a breaking point. 

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“We’ve had conversations in the past trying to guide him and help him continue to evolve as a person and a player,” said Jenkins. “Obviously this came to a head the other day.”

In teasing the rest of his interview with Morant, which broadcast on the network’s “Sportscenter” show late Wednesday night, Rose ran down a litany: An incident at a Memphis high school volleyball game, an incident at a Memphis mall, an incident in FedExForum after a game with the Indiana Pacers. He didn’t even include the incident last summer at a pickup game at Morant’s home. 

Rose cited “a series of poor decisions,” and also Morant’s willingness to “open up” about all of them. When the rest of the interview was broadcast, “acknowledge” seemed more apt. But in acknowledging these incidents, Morant also admitted, at least, a pattern of finding himself in some bad situations. 

Recognition is but one step in this particular recovery process, but is an essential one. 

This series of stories that had emerged about Morant in the weeks before Denver had already set up a kind of public test. For Morant to broadcast himself with a gun amid already heightened scrutiny was a shockingly willful and reckless act, even more than it would have been without that context. 

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Morant failed that test. But perhaps a public display no one wanted provoked a private reckoning everyone needed. 

Wednesday’s clarity on a path to return represented an inevitable next step in that process, but only time will tell. 

While Morant is ultimately responsible, this return will also be a test for his support system. 

This includes family and friends, who have spurred some of these lesser now-public incidents by initiating or engaging in conflicts that have unnecessarily drawn in Morant. 

It also includes the Grizzlies, who are now challenged to find a better blend of accountability and support for their young star, and who will hope to now find a more willing recipient of a better structure. 

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Introspection is needed on all three fronts. 

While Morant’s retreat to some type of counseling program in Florida was only reported a few days ago, it apparently began soon after his departure from the team. 

This distinction matters, but the difference is still only roughly a week. 

The validity of Morant’s needs in this regard shouldn’t be questioned. 

While we don’t, and perhaps won’t, know the full details, Morant spoke in the interview with Rose of working constantly with therapists, of learning to express his feelings, of learning meditation and breathing techniques to cope with anxiety. 

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But to grant validity is also to wonder about the quickness of Morant’s return. 

The NBA and the Grizzlies suggest they are comfortable with Morant returning when his eight-game suspension is served and he’s physically ready. That would be as early as next Wednesday. 

Let’s hope they’re right. 

One wonders how much more Morant will “open up,” at least publicly. But that’s not the test. It’s not about public reflection on the past but new behavior in the present and future. 

Morant declared to Rose that the gun shown in Denver was not his. If you read the NBA’s statement carefully, the league’s investigation into the gun matter, much as with the gun allegations after the Pacers game in late January, was inconclusive, not exonerating. 

Asked about the Pacers incident in the extended interview with Rose, Morant cited the NBA not finding any evidence. 

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Still, this is perhaps the biggest young star in the NBA, subject to a league gun investigation twice in five weeks. It’s a red alarm issue far beyond Memphis. 

Given the lack of evidence, all parties involved seem to want to move on and carve a better future.

The test hasn’t changed, but the stakes have grown greater. If everyone involved, starting but not ending with Morant, recognizes this, then that better future beckons. 

This moment has been a reminder that there are things bigger than basketball, but a return to basketball means a return to basketball questions. 

Morant’s eight-game suspension will cost him more than $600,000. That’s a pittance compared to the roughly $40 million at stake in Morant’s bid to make an All-NBA team. The $190 million early contract extension that Morant signed in the summer came with escalator clauses that could boost it to roughly $230 million (a “super max”) if Morant repeated on the All-NBA team. 

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With the Grizzlies second in the West and Morant putting up big numbers again, he seemed to be cruising toward a spot before his season was disrupted. A more extended absence might have doomed those prospects. Now, Morant will return to a team still near the top of the Western playoff race with roughly 10 games to go, things to earn and things to prove.

He’ll return to a team that’s stayed afloat during his absence, in a conference as wide-open as ever. The Grizzlies franchise has never won a game past the second round of the playoffs. Uncharted territory is available. 

If it seems untoward to broach such subjects amid the more fraught and more human concerns that have circled Morant of late, well, Morant’s looming return to the game makes them inescapable. 

These are the pressures that come with Morant’s position in this sport. Morant, the Grizzlies and the NBA have deemed him ready to take them on again. 

Let’s hope they’re right.