Former Georgia Basketball Player Brandon Morris Claims Innocence

In an interview with Wayne Ford of onlineathens.com, now former University of Georgia basketball player Brandon Morris claims he is innocent of the marijuana possession charges that led to his dismissal from the Georgia basketball team.

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“I’m innocent. That’s really all I want to elaborate on. Just know the marijuana and the scales were not mine and the person who’s it was will be showing his face in court with me,” Morris told an Athens Banner Herald/onlineathens.com reporter. “That charge won’t get thrown at me. I’m getting a good lawyer so I can put this all behind me.”

As reported by Ford, the incident began around 2:00 a.m, when an Athens-Clarke County police officer saw Morris’s car parked in motorcycle parking spaces downtown. The officer noticed the smell of marijuana and seized a bookbag from the car. The bag contained about 18grams of marijuana and a digital scale, resulting in felony level possession charges.

Morris, from Lithonia, Ga., averaged 8.6 points and 3.4 rebounds per game as a sophomore for the Bulldogs last season. He started 25 of the 31 games in which he played, averaging 25.4 minutes per contest.

“This program has a strong expectation of citizenship and every one of our players understands this,” Fox told Georgiadogs.com. “This expectation does not mean that mistakes will not happen. When they do I always deal with them appropriately. Brandon had a very clear understanding of our expectation. Unfortunately, I’ve had to dismiss him from our team.

As reported by Dawnofthedawg.com earlier today, this is not Morris’s first encounter with trouble. Morris served a three game suspension to open last season for undisclosed reasons followed by an extended stay in Coach Fox’s dog house. Morris was expected to start at small forward. It was also anticipated Morris would take minutes at power forward to relieve the pressure from the only two returning post players with significant 2014 playing time as well as serve in the backcourt if depth became an issue. Unfortunately, Morris’s unique skill set is not at Coach Fox’s disposal this season – or ever.

Morris went on to tell onlineathens.com he regrets the negative publicity. “I am very sorry. This is bringing so much attention to the school and it’s unnecessary. I apologize to the school and to my teammates, the fans, and everybody at Georgia.”

Morris, a rising junior, is from Lithonia and played at Miller Grove High School in DeKalb County. He leaves Georgia with two years of collegiate eligibility remaining.

Coach Fox told Georgiadogs.com, “We’ve offered Brandon as much help as we can as he leaves, in hope that he can continue his career somewhere else.”