The high school basketball player who accused Ja Morant and Morant’s close friend of striking him following a 2022 pickup game at Morant’s home has filed an amended complaint for damages against the star Memphis Grizzlies guard.

Joshua Holloway, a former St. George’s player who spent the 2022-23 season playing for the Oak Hill Academy prep boarding school program in Virginia, filed the amended civil lawsuit March 28, 2023.

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He accuses Morant and Morant’s friend, Davonte Pack, of civil assault; reckless endangerment; abuse or neglect; intentional, negligent and reckless infliction of emotional distress; breach of duty of care to an invitee; battery; civil conspiracy; and negligent supervision.

Claiming physical and mental pain and suffering, physical impairment, loss of enjoyment of life and peace of mind, medical and counseling-related expenses, and embarrassment and humiliation, Holloway, according to the amended suit, “demands a jury trial” and seeks unspecified damages.

The amended suit, obtained by The Daily Memphian, was filed in the Shelby County Circuit Court for Memphis’ 13th Judicial Circuit.

Holloway’s mother, Myca Holloway, originally sued Morant over the same matter in 2022. Joshua Holloway, previously not identified by The Daily Memphian, filed his suit after he turned 18 years old. He was 17 at the time of the alleged incident.

The lawsuit filed by Holloway’s mother was sealed by the court, but Holloway’s suit is unsealed.

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Past lawsuits

Myca Holloway has frequently been involved in litigation over the past decade.

She has sued Memphis-Shelby County Schools and the Memphis Fire Department pro se, meaning without an attorney.

In the lawsuit against MSCS, Holloway said her daughter had been involved in a fight on a school bus after being bullied and was assaulted by two twin boys, and she filed a $20 million lawsuit for not addressing bullying, the bus system for not contacting authorities and Memphis Police for not following up or issuing a summons.

The second lawsuit she filed was against the Memphis Fire Department. Holloway claimed a firefighter sexually harassed her when MFD officers arrived on the scene, saying one officer stroked her ring finger and made comments asking about her marital status.

The lawsuit sought compensation for sexual harrassment, sexual assault and sexual misconduct for $5 million. Both those lawsuits were dismissed, one voluntary, with prejudice in November 2016 and August 2022, respectively.

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Court filings also show a woman who has experienced financial hardship.

Holloway has filed for bankruptcy multiple times. The most recent case, Chapter 7, was concluded on July 10, 2022, just days before her son’s encounter with Morant.

The lawsuit lists no income except for child support in the previous calendar year. It also shows that Holloway, at one point, owed the Internal Revenue Service $17,000 and had about $60,000 in other debt.

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In Joshua Holloway’s suit, he alleges he was among a group of high school basketball players invited by Morant’s father, Tee Morant, to Morant’s Eads home “to receive experience playing against one of the best basketball players in the (NBA).” This was four days after Morant “was involved in an incident at Wolfchase Galleria Mall” in Memphis when his mother, Jamie Morant, “was asked to leave the mall due to causing a disturbance.”

The suit goes on to allege that, at one point, Morant “forcefully” threw the ball at Holloway, Holloway threw it back to Morant and “it hit him in the chin.” It says Morant “punched Joshua Holloway in the face with tremendous force,” and Holloway “was punched in the head” by Pack, causing Holloway “to fall to the ground.”

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The allegations, all previously reported by The Daily Memphian and other local and national media outlets, are similar to those contained in an incident report previously obtained from the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office.

The lawsuit further alleges one or both defendants continued to hit Holloway while he was on the ground and that former Memphis Grizzlies player Mike Miller assisted Tee Morant “in breaking up the encounter and escorting Joshua away from the property.”

As Holloway looked back at the home while he was leaving, according to the suit, Ja Morant “stood outside the front door and gestured toward a firearm on his hip.”

The gun accusation was not mentioned in the initial sheriff’s department’s report released in January to The Daily Memphian, parts of which are redacted. It is referenced in the transcript of a subsequent interview of Holloway conducted by a sheriff’s office detective.

The suit alleges that Ja Morant “admitted that he punched … Holloway with his fist” and that Pack “punched” Holloway.

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The lawsuit goes on to allege Morant and Pack engaged in “civil conspiracy” and “in concert,” and that Morant “had actual constructive knowledge of Defendant Pack’s propensity for aggressive behavior, especially when acting in conjunction with Defendant Morant.”

Morant, a 23-year-old Murray State product originally from South Carolina, and Pack have been friends since childhood.

Earlier this year, Pack was banned from Grizzlies games at FedExForum for the remainder of the season for his alleged behavior during and after a game against the Indiana Pacers.

The incident at Morant’s home was investigated as a case of alleged simple assault.

The Shelby County District Attorney General’s Office announced in early January that it would not pursue criminal charges in the matter, saying, “The DA’s office is aware of the incident, and after a careful review of the facts, decided that there was not enough evidence to proceed with a case.”

Morant has not discussed the matter in great detail.

But in a recent interview, before the unsealed lawsuit was filed, he told ESPN, “There’s not much I can say, you know, because it’s sealed. But pretty much everything, you know, you see on the social media, you know, that’s going on with that, is a lie, and another thing, you know, I can’t wait to, you know, finally say my side, and actually tell the truth, you know, what’s going on, so it’ll finally will stop.”

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National focus

Also Thursday, in a story titled, “In Memphis, Ja Morant’s summer of trouble went unchecked by authorities,” The Washington Post reported extensively on the two alleged July 2022 incidents involving Morant.

Givon Busby, who worked at a Finish Line shoe store in Wolfchase Mall where Morant allegedly threatened him following an alleged incident involving Morant’s mother, told the Washington Post he spent nearly an hour in the storeroom, at times “shaking” with emotion.

The Post report also shared an exchange of private social media messages between former Memphis Tigers point guard Alex Lomax and Morant over the alleged incident involving Holloway, who is identified as a cousin of Lomax’s.

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“D-- whats good?” Lomax messaged. “Yall beat up my youngin yesterday? Lil Joshhh?”

“[A]sk lil bruh what he did,” Morant responded, according to The Washington Post story.

“[I] gave em chances. wouldn’t do a youngin like dat for no reason … lil bruh want people to feel sorry for him, for something he caused.”

“Real n---- aint movin like that,” Lomax wrote. “Thats a kid.”

Responded Morant: “[R]eal n---- aint gon get disrespected or a ball thrown at they face either.”

Backing its headline assertion that Morant’s behavior went “unchecked,” The Post also reported, “Detectives handled it gingerly: It was six weeks before they interviewed Morant about punching Holloway, records show, and even then they avoided asking Morant key questions.

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“By October, prosecutors had quietly shelved the case. They cited a lack of evidence following an investigation during which police did not indicate they interviewed a single witness about the teenager’s allegation and hadn’t identified Morant’s best friend who also allegedly punched Holloway.”

The Daily Memphian, working off a tip, began looking into the alleged incident at Morant’s home shortly after the night in question. No one went on the record with a comment regarding the matter, however, and the sealed lawsuit remained under wraps until its contents were leaked roughly three months ago to the celebrity website TMZ.

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The past year has been a long one for Morant, who was questioned by Germantown police in September after he and others arrived at a Houston High volleyball game in which his younger sister had gotten into a verbal argument with another student.

Early in March, Morant flashed a gun on an Instagram Live video self-filmed at a Denver-area gentleman’s club. The NBA subsequently suspended Morant for eight games, and he spent part of that time undergoing counseling in Florida.

In response to a request Thursday for comment on the unsealed lawsuit, the agency that represents Morant, Tandem Sports + Entertainment, said Thursday that they “don’t plan on issuing any response to the article at this time.”

Attempts to contact the Grizzlies and their chief of security, Kevin Helms, who is mentioned multiple times in The Washington Post report, were unsuccessful.

Lomax did not respond to a request for comment.

Holloway did not respond to a direct message request for comment made via Twitter on Thursday and Holloway’s attorney, Rebecca Adelman, also did not respond to a request for comment.

Holloway also did not respond to a similar request in January, one of multiple unanswered attempts by The Daily Memphian to contact Holloway, his Oak Hill coach and his representation for a comment request.

Daily Memphian reporters Drew Hill, Parth Upadhyaya and Ben Wheeler contributed to this story.