Ja Morant Says He Went to Counseling For Stress, Not Alcohol

Ja Morant returned to the Memphis Grizzlies yesterday following a voluntary absence that doubled as a suspension after he went on Instagram Live with a gun at a strip club during a team road trip a few weeks back. Part of Morant's "rehabilitation" included a trip to a counseling program in Florida. Little details were provided otherwise until Morant spoke to the media at team practice today.

Morant explained that the counseling program was not for alcohol abuse, as some theorized, but instead for learning how to manage stress in a healthy way.

How Morant continues to respond to these sorts of inquiries will be far more indicative of how he feels about everything that's gone down than the Jalen Rose interview. That was a controlled environment and he probably got the questions ahead of time, or at least had some idea what was coming. Everything will be different if he gets hit with a question about his situation after a hard-fought loss.

Either way, this story isn't going away for a long time yet. Morant better be prepared.