This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning. Here’s Charles Curtis.
This one is simple, NBA.
You can’t suspend Nikola Jokic for what was the weirdest of incidents on Sunday during the Denver Nuggets’ Game 4 win over the Phoenix Suns.
Let’s review: As the basketball went into the hands of new Suns owner Mat Ishbia, Jokic came right over to grab it and start up an inbounds play, with the possibility that the Nuggets could have had a 5-on-4 advantage with Suns guard Josh Okogie on the ground. Ishbia didn’t give up the rock, caught a forearm from Jokic and appeared to flop.
Jokic and head coach Mike Malone later referred to Ishbia as a “fan,” not caring that he was an owner. The case they made was simple: if he’s sitting courtside, he’s a fan like everyone else and holding on to the ball like that was not OK.
The NBA could interpret its own rules about players or anyone else entering the stands as suspension-worthy, unless the league feels that Jokic was still in the area of the court for this one.
But I’m here to say, either way, nope. Fines? Yes, for both Ishbia and Jokic. Ishbia shouldn’t have held the ball and Jokic should have held off when the ball wasn’t given up initially.
The fact that Ishbia is an NBA owner? It’s pertinent. How bad would the league look for taking the Nuggets best player, a two-time NBA MVP and the biggest X-factor in the series, out for a pivotal Game 5 when an owner was involved here? So bad. Suspending both of them isn’t equivalent when it’s Jokic’s absence that could swing the series.
Let’s move on here.
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