Denver Nuggets center and two-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokić was penalized with a technical foul for making contact with Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia in the second quarter of Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals on Sunday. Here’s what you need to know:
- Sun’s forward Josh Okogie dove into the crowd to get a loose ball that bounced into Ishbia’s hands. He held onto the ball while the fans helped Okogie to his feet.
- Jokić then tried to snatch the ball from Ishbia, who was reluctant to give the ball away. The Nuggets center contacted him after the ball went free.
- A fan was removed from his seat for contacting Jokić. Ishbia stayed put after the incident. The Suns released a statement, which said, “One attendee has been relocated to defuse the situation.”
- The Suns won Game 4 129-124 over the Nuggets. The series is 2:2.
The Athletic’s instant analysis:
riot at court
Ishbia sat in his usual owner’s seats. Hall of Fame point guard and Detroit Pistons “bad boy” Isiah Thomas, who was close to the Suns’ owner during the playoffs, sat to his right. Jokić wanted the ball for Denver to run in quickly, but Okogie was still trying to break away from the crowd.
As Jokić picked up the ball, Ishbia seemed to be trying to hold on to it. The ball flew back into the crowd. Jokić did not appreciate this. He looked at Ishbia and nudged him with his left elbow.
Ishbia, a former Michigan State walk-on basketball player, sold it and reverted to his seat. The crowd booed. Officials checked the procedure and gave Jokić an unsportsmanlike technical foul. – Hall
Will or should Jokic be suspended?
As I’ve been in this position before, it’s the worst. Your team is about to play the biggest game of the season and you don’t know if your star will be available. That happened to us in Memphis when Zach Randolph was suspended for Game 7 against Oklahoma City in 2014, and now the Nuggets will face a similar situation ahead of a big Game 5 on Tuesday.
The league will likely take some time to decide, but the schedule requires them to make a decision within 48 hours, and realistically a little sooner. They will certainly question Jokić, Okogie and others before making a decision, but at some point Joe Dumars’ office will have to call. (And surely Commissioner Adam Silver will have his finger on the scales here too).
Of course, Suns fans of a certain age are also very familiar with it. They were involved in perhaps the most impactful Game 5 second round suspension in NBA history in 2007, when Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw were suspended for a crucial game they eventually lost to San Antonio.
GO DEEPER
Will Nikola Jokić be banned after meeting Suns owner Mat Ishbia?
So what will happen? The first place to start is to understand that the NBA has a very hard line on how players interact with opposing fans, something that harks back to the 2004 “Malice at the Palace” between Detroit and Indiana and an overwhelming desire never to do that to do even repeat. Therefore, even relatively harmless violations – gently push a ball sideways into the crowd, shall we say – be greeted with an immediate technical foul. What Jokic has done moves in a kind of gray area, the shadow of which is likely to be determined by which of the two teams you support.
The letter of the law states that players are not allowed to go into the crowd, but Jokic was still on the hardwood when the Ishbia incident happened. Also, he wasn’t there to start with the fans, but to get the ball back and try to spark a transition the other way.
The other important point here is that the officials on the pitch have already reviewed the game and made a decision. Suspensions are much more likely if officials miss an infraction during the game. In this case, senior official Tony Brothers made eye-opening comments to a pool reporter and found it unworthy of being ejected.
“I just thought the technical foul was the appropriate punishment for what happened over there,” Brothers said. “(Jokic) didn’t just run over and hit a fan. There was some interference, so I felt the technical foul was the appropriate punishment.”
Based on all of this precedent, and the fact that Jokic isn’t quite in Draymond Green/Marcus Morris territory as far as previous visits to the Headmaster’s office go, I think it’s more likely that he isn’t suspended. But I can hardly rule that out either, especially after Green’s somewhat surprising suspension for game 5 in the first round.
I’ll hinder it as a 1 in 3 chance of it happening. I also think it would be a mistake if that were the case, a totally over-the-top sanction for what was, at the end of the day, a fairly harmless piece of theatre. — Hollinger
What you say
Jokić addressed the incident after the game.
“He (the referee) told me that I would elbow the fan, but the fan put his hands on me first,” Jokić said. “I thought the league was supposed to protect us. But maybe I’m wrong.”
“He got us a point,” said Devin Booker. “He was doing his job over there.”
“I didn’t even know what was going on,” said Suns coach Monty Williams. “That’s never my focus. I just saw a crowd over there. I was worried about the next game and our boys not crossing the line. I saw Jokić get a tech and that was it.”
(Photo: Christian Petersen / Getty Images)