The NBA offseason is in full swing. There are rumors and reports of players options and trades — and the Utah Jazz are in the middle of figuring out whether they will trade one or both of their star players.
And it appears Utah has made a trade for Ja from Memphis.
No, not that one. Sorry.
The Salt Lake City zoo welcomed a 10-foot-tall, 1-and-a-half-year-old giraffe last week named Ja Raffe, who came from the Memphis Zoo in Tennessee. Ja Raffe is named after Memphis Grizzlies star guard Ja Morant.
And on Wednesday afternoon, ESPN’s NBA account tweeted the news like it would a blockbuster trade in the league: “Breaking: Ja Raffe has officially been traded from the Memphis Zoo to Utah’s Hogle Zoo.”
Morant led the Grizzlies to the Western Conference semifinals, where the team lost to the eventual champion Golden State Warriors. He injured his knee in Game 3 of that series and did not return.
Morant is already generally considered one of the best young guards in the NBA, even though he is still young and developing. Ja Raffe, much like his eponymous human counterpart, also has a lot of room to grow as he ages.
It remains to be seen if Ja Raffe will end up a star at Hogle Zoo. But with his already towering height, Morant probably wouldn’t want to challenge the giraffe to a game of one-on-one.
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