Source: Morant is Griz player in burglary string
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Two-time NBA All-Star Ja Morant is the Memphis Grizzlies player whose home was burglarized by the seven men from Chile charged in federal court with orchestrating break-ins at the homes of prominent professional athletes around the country, a league source confirmed to ESPN's Tim MacMahon.
The Daily Memphian reported earlier Thursday that a senior law enforcement official familiar with the investigation confirmed Morant was "Professional Athlete 6" identified in an FBI complaint filed Jan. 30 in Tampa, Florida.
During pregame availability Thursday evening in Indianapolis, Memphis officials said Morant had no comment about the news. The Grizzlies were to play at the Indiana Pacers on Thursday night in their first game since the All-Star break.
The FBI complaint doesn't name the athletes and lists only burglaries already made public involving the Kansas City Chiefs' Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals, Bobby Portis of the Milwaukee Bucks, and players for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the NBA's Grizzlies.
According to the complaint, the Grizzlies player's home was burglarized sometime after 4 p.m. on Dec. 19. The Grizzlies beat the Golden State Warriors 144-93 that night in Memphis. The burglars stole "jewelry, watches and luxury bags valued" at about $1 million, according to the complaint.
A spokesperson for the Shelby County Sheriff's Office said deputies responded to a reported burglary Dec. 20 at a home in an unincorporated part of the county. Deputies declined to release the name of the player or the address during an active investigation.
Some of the men were arrested in January after a traffic stop in Ohio on state charges for allegedly breaking into the home of Burrow, the Bengals quarterback. In that case, four of the men were found to be in the country illegally, according to a court affidavit filed in Clark County, Ohio. The men took photos of themselves with some of the loot. The groups often separated into smaller units to commit multiple burglaries, according to the FBI.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.