Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic suspended one game for Markieff Morris shove

Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic has been suspended for one game due to an unsportsmanlike hit that injured Miami Heat center Markieff Morris.

Markieff Morris has been suffering long after Nikola Jokic decked him during a Monday night game between the Nuggets and the Heat.

Now, it appears that Jokic will suffer too, as the hit has just cost him his ability to play against the Indiana Pacers on Nov. 10.

The NBA announced the one-game suspension when they shared a press release concerning the matter on Tuesday.

Jokic has been fined one game without pay for “forcefully shoving” Morris to the floor while his back was turned. Morris sustained a neck injury following the cheap shot.

Morris has also been penalized, facing a $50,000 fine for committing a “Flagrant Foul 2 that initiated an on-court altercation.”

But these weren’t the only two players to get punished for the mid-game altercation. The league also fined Morris’ teammate, Jimmy Butler, $30,000 for “attempting to escalate the altercation” and “failing to comply with an NBA Security interview” as the league tried to investigate what took place on court.

Nikola Jokic suspended one game as Markieff Morris and Jimmy Butler face fines for Nuggets-Heat altercation

There is a great deal of drama in the fallout of the Morris-Jokic hit, as the brothers of both players started arguing back and forth over Twitter.

All Butler shouted were fighting words, but no blows were exchanged. The only possible explanation for the outlandish fine is that the NBA wants to discourage this type of reaction by teammates as they react to flagrant fouls.

Beyond potentially costing his team the upcoming Pacers game, Jokic is going to pay for missing a game without his salary. With a $31 million salary for the 2021-22 season, Jokic will miss out on getting paid approximately $385,114.

That blow is going to hurt a lot more than anything that happened on Tuesday night.