MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Lawyers for a teenager suing two-time NBA All-Star Ja Morant over a brawl at an offseason pickup game may withdraw from the case after citing conflicts irreconcilable with their client, a Tennessee judge ruled Friday. .
Rebecca Adelman and Leslie Ballin had filed a motion in Shelby County Circuit Court asking a judge to allow them to withdraw from Joshua Holloway’s lawsuit against Morant, who hosted a one-day series of pickup games at his parents’ home in July 2022 which ended. when the Memphis Grizzlies guard once punched Holloway, then 17, in the face.
Judge Carol Chumney granted the request during a brief hearing Friday. Adelman did not provide details about the nature of the conflicts, saying only in court that she felt unable to exercise her “legal judgment” in favor of Holloway. The judge gave Holloway’s parents 30 days to come to court with information about a new attorney.
Myca Clay, Holloway’s mother, said she was looking for new representation for her son, who plays college basketball for Samford. Clay said after the hearing that she was not willing to settle the lawsuit filed in September 2022 and that she disagreed with how her son’s attorneys had represented him.
“I’m just trying to get justice for my son,” Clay told reporters.
The lawyers’ withdrawal from the case came about three weeks after Chumney ruled that Morant “enjoys a presumption of civil immunity” from liability under Tennessee law. Morant claimed he acted in self-defense when he punched Holloway after the teen threw a basketball at Morant, who hit the NBA player in the face.
Morant testified at a hearing in December that he feared he would be hurt after the teen punched him in the chest, clenched his fists and got into a fighting stance before Morant punched Holloway.
The NBA player’s lawyers argued that Morant was protected by Tennessee’s “stand your ground” law, which allows people who feel threatened in their home to act forcefully in certain situations. The law is used in criminal cases, but an earlier ruling by the judge allowed Morant’s lawyers to apply it in civil cases.
A trial had been set for April, but it was postponed indefinitely.
Morant tore the labrum in his right shoulder in early January, an injury that required surgery, ending a season that began with Morant suspended by the NBA for the first 25 games for a video of the guard brandishing a gun fist online.
The video showed Morant sitting in the passenger seat of a car and was released after he served an eight-game suspension in March for another video in which he displayed a handgun at a Chicago-area strip club. Denver.
Morant apologized for both videos.
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