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Ja Morant on friends' postgame confrontation with Pacers: 'All that stuff pretty much false'

Ja Morant had a short but blunt response Tuesday about the reported confrontation in the FedExForum loading dock involving his friends and the Indiana Pacers traveling party after the Memphis Grizzlies' win over the Pacers on Jan. 29.

"All that stuff pretty much false. It’s been proven," Morant said when he spoke to reporters for the first time since the incident became public on Sunday. "That’s all I got to say on it.”

The Pacers, according to The Athletic, also alleged that someone in an SUV – in which Morant was a passenger – pointed a red laser at them. The report quoted two anonymous members of the Pacers' party, who said they didn't see if the laser was attached to a gun but believed it was. A Pacers security guard in the area told The Athletic they believed it was "100 percent a gun."

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The NBA said it could not corroborate the claims of a red laser or the presence of a weapon during the incident after conducting eyewitness interviews and reviewing surveillance camera footage. The league did, however, note that a confrontation happened and multiple people associated with Morant were subsequently banned from attending Grizzlies games moving forward.

When pressed specifically about whether the league's conclusion about a confrontation was accurate, Morant declined to go into more detail.

"I answered that question earlier. I’m done with that topic," he said.

Morant noted that he's attempting to avoid being distracted by the recent off-court controversies swirling around the Grizzlies.

"I honestly don’t care, bro. At this point in my life, I’m protecting my energy," Morant said. "I’m not responding to nobody else, not entertaining nobody else. That’s what they need. Likes and clicks."

Morant was, however, willing to expand on his comments last week in Cleveland in which he called the Grizzlies the most hated team in the NBA.

"We are," he said. "You see it every day on social media. Anything that got something to do with the Memphis Grizzlies, it’s front line, national television, national people tweeting it, putting it out. Anything else, it don’t be said. I feel like we wasn't the only team on a losing streak, but we’re the only ones mentioned."

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: What Ja Morant said about friends' confrontation with Indiana Pacers