The NBA schedule reveals an explosive October reunion as Portland’s new star faces the franchise that traded him, seeking an immediate statement against his former teammates.
Ja Morant won't have to wait until February to see his former team again ... because the Memphis Grizzlies are coming to him first.
The 2026-27 NBA regular-season schedule is officially set, and one of the most intriguing early matchups for the Portland Trail Blazers will arrive just eight days into their season.
Morant and the Blazers will welcome Memphis to Portland on Thursday, Oct. 29, marking the first scheduled meeting between the star guard and the franchise that traded him away this summer. Portland's official schedule confirms the matchup as Game 4 of its season.
That's quite the early reunion.
Memphis traded Morant to Portland in June in exchange for Jerami Grant and Kris Murray, officially ending the guard's seven-year run with the only NBA organization he had ever known.
And what a seven years it was.
The Grizzlies selected Morant with the No. 2 overall pick in 2019, and he quickly became the face of a new era in Memphis. He won Rookie of the Year, developed into a two-time All-Star and earned an All-NBA selection while helping turn the Grizzlies into a legitimate Western Conference contender.
But the relationship eventually ran its course.
Morant was limited to 20 games last season before a left elbow injury ended his campaign, and Memphis ultimately decided to move in a different direction. Portland was willing to take the gamble, acquiring a 26-year-old former All-NBA guard in hopes that a change of scenery could help revive his career. Morant averaged 19.5 points and 8.1 assists across those 20 appearances.
Morant wasn't the only face of that former Grizzlies era sent elsewhere, either.
Memphis traded Desmond Bane to Orlando in 2025 before sending Jaren Jackson Jr. to Utah in February. Jackson will get a revenge opportunity of his own when the Jazz open their season at FedExForum on Oct. 21, just eight days before Morant gets his first crack at the Grizzlies in Portland.
Two former cornerstones. Two early opportunities to remind Memphis what it moved on from.
Morant's reunion will eventually become considerably more personal.
Portland is scheduled to travel to Memphis for two games in three nights on Feb. 6 and Feb. 8, giving the former Grizzlies star his first two scheduled games back at FedExForum as an opponent. The NBA has already singled out the Feb. 6 matchup as Morant's return to Memphis, with the game receiving a national audience on Prime.
By then, we'll know considerably more about whether Portland's gamble is working.
Morant will have had more than three months to establish himself within a Blazers roster featuring Deni Avdija and Donovan Clingan. Memphis, meanwhile, will have had the same amount of time to begin defining whatever comes after an era built largely around Morant, Jackson and Bane.
That's what makes these three games particularly interesting.
Memphis decided the Ja Morant era had reached its conclusion.
Portland decided there was still enough left to build another one.
Oct. 29 will provide our first look at which franchise feels better about that decision.
