The name Temetrius sounds like the name of a god straight out of the pages of Greek mythology. Well, Temetrius Jamel Morant, better known as Ja Morant, is trying to create a mythology all his own. Morant, who was one of the best point guards in college basketball this year, made headlines recently for referring to himself as a “Point God” when asked what position he played.

On June 20^th, Morant added to his lore by being drafted second overall by the Memphis Grizzlies in the 2019 NBA draft. Although it may seem like a lot of talk from a 19 -year-old who has yet to play in an NBA game, in an interview with Yahoo sports Morant explained that a point god is someone who can make the players around him better and can do whatever his team needs him to do to get the win.

The Come up of Temetrius Morant 

In his first year of college Morant averaged just over 12 points, 6.5 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game. His next year he came back to school and blew those numbers away, setting an NCAA record with an average of 20 points and 10 assists per game. With these numbers, you would guess that Morant had his pick of schools to attend coming out of high school. Surprisingly, that was not the case. During that time, Morant played on the same AAU team as the first overall pick in the NBA, Zion Williamson.  Morant was often outshined by his star teammate. 

Coming out of high school Morant was unrated and only received one offer by a Power 5 school (The five biggest Division 1 conferences in college sports). That school was the University of South Carolina in Morant’s home state. The only other school to recruit him did so by accident. In an E60 episode, the head coach of Murry State explained that he was at a camp to scout another player when he went out to get some snacks from the vending machine and saw Morant shooting. The rest is history. 

Putting His Name on the Map 

 Morant took a chance and went to Murry State instead of a big school like USC. Once he got on the court, he was ready to make his mark, and that’s exactly what he did. He averaged 24.5 points a game, but he did way more than score. In two years, he had the sixth highest number of total assists in NCAA history with 331. With Morant at the helm, Murry State reached the NCAA tournament for the second consecutive year. Morant led his 12th seeded team to an upset victory over fifth-ranked Marquette. With this game, Morant became the 9th player in tourney history to score a triple-double. 

Check out some of his highlights from the 2018-2019 season below. 

In an interview with Yahoo Sports Ja Morant explained that even though he’s getting the attention he deserves now, he will always be driven by the lack of recognition he faced coming out of high school. While no one knows how his NBA career is going to play out, one thing is for sure, this “Point God” is going to put the whole NBA on notice.