What Is Ja Morant’s Real Name and Where Is He From? Closer Look at the Memphis Grizzlies Star’s Childhood

Ja Morant has been making the rounds on social media and not all of it is for good reasons. As we all know, the Memphis Grizzlies star has been playing excellent basketball this season. However, his off-court antics and behavior are becoming a growing cause for concern. It appears that he is getting into physical fights and confrontations frequently.

This is quite serious and should make NBA fans wonder why Ja chooses to behave in such a manner, considering the potential that his NBA career has. Therefore, we should take an in-depth look into his childhood and early life in order to understand the reasons, if any, behind his recent behavior.

Ja Morant was born in Dalzell, South Carolina, and grew up in Sumter

Ja was born as Temetrius Jamel Morant in South Carolina to Tee Morant and his wife Jamie. It would interest fans to know that both of Morant’s parents already shared an interest in basketball. That is something that they clearly passed on to their only son Ja.

Morant’s childhood and early years of training were largely supervised by his father Tee, who played college-level basketball and was even teammates with NBA legend Ray Allen during his time in high school. Despite wanting to play overseas if possible, Tee was unable to after his wife became pregnant and decided to stay at home and take care of his family.

As a result of this, Tee Morant decided to become a barber in order to keep a livelihood and support his wife and child. However, he didn’t let his passion for the game slip away and instead passed it on to his son from a very young age. They spent countless hours together, working on Ja’s game and Tee made him jump on tire tracks, a reason for his incredible athleticism today.

Perhaps all of this intense training and time with his father made Morant all the more confident from a young age. Even when he was a child, Ja revealed to his mother that he was never scared of older children and was always excited to play against them.

Soon Ja grew up and it was time for him to attend high school. He went to Crestwood highs school located in Sumter and developed into a more complete player. By the time he was done with Crestwood, Morant was the institution’s all-time leading scorer with 1679 points.

Ja has continued working on his game over the years and made a lot of money through his contract with the Memphis Grizzlies. Be that as it may, he is still in touch with his roots and seems quite close to his hometown and childhood friends.