Ja Morant and Buddy Hield, as well as the Grizzlies and Warriors organizations, are getting warnings for using a finger gun celebration but will face no other penalties or punishments, something confirmed by NBC Sports (Shams Charania was first).
However, don't be surprised if the NBA takes up the issue and implements some kind of rule banning the gesture in the offseason.
Morant made multiple finger gun celebrations during his team's loss to Golden State. The Warriors' Hield mocked Morant, doing it back to him when Golden State was in control of the game.
Ja Morant appeared to make a gun gesture at the Warriors' bench late in the game pic.twitter.com/fTvFA0wpit
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) April 2, 2025
The league determined that, while the gestures were inappropriate, there was no intention for them to be violent in nature, so the league settled on just a warning for everyone involved.
The challenge for the NBA, as Morant's teammate Desmond Bane pointed out, is that a number of players from around the league have been doing variations of finger gun celebrations for years. When and where do they want to draw the line? The NBA has no rule explicitly banning this gesture, but it has fined players for things such as a throat-slashing gesture or the big balls celebration in the past (players know if they do those things they get a fine). Expect the topic to come up again this offseason.
This gun gesture took on a larger-than-it-deserved part of the NBA discussion because of Morant's history. He was suspended for eight games near the end of the 2022-23 season after he showed off a gun on Instagram Live while at a strip club in Colorado. Morant served a 25-game suspension at the start of last season after Morant was seen again on Instagram Live with a gun while riding in a friend's car.
