Nikola Jokic ejected for retaliation shove on Markieff Morris Discussion

[Herbert]

 

[Herbert]

I gotta say both of these fouls were cheap shots. I feel like if the referees had called a tech or flagrant on Morris immediately or made some move to show that they were looking at it as more than a common foul, Jokic never would've delivered a cheap shot himself. This kind of stuff happens because the referees let certain kinds of contact go i.e. a body to body foul but nobody hits the floor. When obvious stuff like this happens and the referees don't address it immediately, it leads to fights. It leads to ugly moments like this later on. In basketball you cannot run into a guy and deliver the full weight of your body and your forearm into his side. You just can't do it. Shannon is right, Jokic needs to protect himself. People can't think they can just foul you any kind of way and just turn their back, with no consequence whatsoever. Somebody needs to hold them accountable. The referees unfortunately failed to do so in a timely fashion and so Jokic took it into his own hands.

Miami heat coach Erik Spoelstra saying that it was a dirty play and that Morris could have gotten hurt is 100% correct. But I would also argue that Jokic could have gotten hurt. Also it's a bit disingenuous for Coach Spoelstra to say it was a simple "take foul" it was not. It was obviously more than that.  Let's put this into perspective. Miami was outplayed that night. Denver was without 2 of their top 3 players and had a near 20 point lead. Also we know that the Morris brothers are tough competitors, they compete and they compete pretty hard, this kind of foul is not uncommon from physical players especially when they are getting beat. It is not at all uncommon. One could easily imagine Draymond Green or Dwight Howard comitting a similar foul like this on a star player. Coach Spoelstra has to know this, the fact that he is not looking at the game through this kind of lense is proof of his bias and he is part of the problem. He claims that Jokic's play was dirty but he is not willing to hold his guy accountable as well.

I'll be interested to see how the NBA decides to handle punishment for this one. I feel bad for Morris, I hope he's gonna be okay, because he did get hit from behind with his head turned, Jokic himself even admitted after the game he felt bad for the way he reacted but I can't ignore the fact that Morris did start it. No matter what team you cheer for, if you're for player safety, you honestly don't want to see either foul in a game. Jokic at least admitted as much you wish someone from Miami would admit the same.