MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Before reaching All-Star status on the hardwood, Ja Morant trained on one of the hardest surfaces.
"I played on concrete all my life," Morant said after being on the receiving end of a Flagrant 2 from Marcus Morris Sr. in Tuesday win over the Clippers.
Growing up in Dalzell, South Carolina, his father Tee would work him tirelessly each day in their handmade backyard court. He jumped on tractor tires, ran through cone drills, and got better.
That was how Tee launched his first-born to basketball stardom. Now he is working on his next project.
Meet Teniya Morant, a junior at Houston High School and the younger sister of Ja.
She stands at 5-foot-7, but like her brother, her small stature does not stop her from taking on anyone. In an open gym she seeks out games against boys.
"If I can beat a boy, I can definitely beat a girl," Teniya said. "Some girls just play basketball for fun. I take basketball serious."
A family trait ingrained in South Carolina. In some ways, Tee believes Teniya is easier to train than Ja when he was young.
"She would be out in the back working with Ja, but they would take it differently," Tee said. "If I fuss at Ja, he'd go tell on me [to his mother, Jamie]. Teniya would be like whatever, man. She'd have hers and just brush it off. Ja would hold it for a minute."
Ja Morant holding a grudge? This should shock precisely no one. Teniya, meanwhile, would change out of her workout clothes and return to watch Tee coach the other kids who were in their backyard that day.
"I could take it," she said of her father's constructive criticism.
So Ja couldn't?
"I never knew," Teniya said with a laugh. "I never knew."
He certainly can now.
"Yelling at, whatever, I can take it, because I know you're motivating me to me better."
Undersized and overlooked that what defined Ja's basketball career before he landed at Murray State.
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A week shy of her 17th birthday, Teniya is still waiting for her first offer.
"It's almost like the same Ja effect as far as wondering when some scholarship offers or more interest is going to come in," Tee said. "But I told her you've got to do the same thing, put in the work. It will show."
To get there, Tee has taken an unusual step. Two weeks ago, he pulled his daughter off her high school team midseason. He will train her instead, ahead of this summer's AAU circuit.
"My thing with that was, I don't think I saw enough progress in her game," Tee said. "So you know. We took a step back."
He did the same with Ja in AAU, when he felt favoritism for a coach's son was stunting Morant's growth.
"I was like you good? He said 'No he's messing with my confidence. I said go take your uniform off.'" Tee recalled. "Because I can't let nobody mess with confidence. And I think that was the same thing that was happening with Teniya. I saw that cycle again. And I was like no. I got to protect her from that. Let's put this work in over here. So it will be seen later on."
Teniya is confident they made the right move. Even if a college offer doesn't come from training with her father, she has regained something precious to her.
"I'm not going to lie, I was losing love for the game playing school ball," she said. "I felt like there was no hope in me with what was going on there. But him, my mom, my brother. They all make it known that I can get to where I want to be. I've just got to work. They know what's best."
With one recruiting season left, Tee plans to hold camps this summer for Memphis area girls who, like Teniya, have not had much exposure.
But as the spotlight turns on for the younger Morant, she asks for the chance to shine in her own light.
"What he does, yeah I'm proud of him," she said. "But he's him, and I'm me. I don't want people to compare me to him just because he's him. I mean, yeah we work out together, but I'm still my own person at the end of the day."