Some beeves are petty, some beeves start small and linger, but the Nikola Jokic-Markieff Morris beef was different. It started when one giant shoved a slightly smaller giant really, really hard. It was quite shocking for me, a non-giant, to watch, and based on Markeiff Morris being out for 58 games with whiplash after the shove, it was pretty shocking for him as well.
Now, consider the fact that both beef participants are extremely close with their brothers. And also that their brothers are known for shows of aggression and being strong and one used to be a professional MMA fighter. And you've got yourself a beefball with no filler, no biding agent, just beef.
Now, consider the fact that both beef participants are extremely close with their brothers. And also that their brothers are known for shows of aggression and being strong and one used to be a professional MMA fighter. And you've got yourself a beefball with no filler, no biding agent, just beef.
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00:00In one corner, we have Nikola Jokic, and he's angry.
00:04In the other corner is Markeith Morris, and he's on the ground.
00:08Hanging over the ropes, reaching to be tagged in, salivating for blood.
00:13We have their brothers.
00:30Stuff where you see our faces.
00:31So falling in love is a possibility.
00:34Okay, back to the beef.
00:37Let's meet the headliners of our beef.
00:39Going by height, up first, Nikola Jokic.
00:42Jokic grew up in Serbia in a small apartment with two gigantic older brothers.
00:48It sounds about as chaotic as you imagine when you see these three adults.
00:53Surely they were smaller as children.
00:55But still.
00:56The Joker went pro in Serbia at age 17, where he played a different position, what he called
01:01fat point guard.
01:03He could toss impressive passes and clearly had vision, but weighing 300 pounds with little
01:09to no muscle, he wasn't getting any looks from NBA scouts.
01:14His brother Strahinja, a former Serbian pro basketball player himself, was actually a
01:18big part of Nikola replacing some of that fat with muscle.
01:22Strahinja moved to Belgrade to train him.
01:25But there's another reason NBA scouts weren't looking in Nikola's direction.
01:29The soft European stereotype.
01:32Not helped by the fact that Nikola once hit the injured list because he signed too many
01:36autographs.
01:38Also not helped by Darko Milicic, one of the larger busts in the history of the NBA.
01:43And a product of Serbian professional basketball.
01:46Milicic even had ties to the Jokic family.
01:49Nikola's older brother, Nemanja, played Division 1 ball for Detroit Mercy, choosing that school
01:54because Milicic played for the Pistons.
01:56He lived with Milicic in his mansion, which led to a lifestyle that wasn't super conducive
02:02to collegiate sporting success.
02:05Despite the youngest Jokic's red flags, the Nuggets took him with the 41st pick in 2014.
02:11His brothers were a huge part of his life in America.
02:14They took on a supportive and protective role.
02:17To the extreme.
02:18They all lived together and the big bros went to all of Nikola's games, home and away.
02:23Nemanja said Nikola is getting this family support whether he likes it or not.
02:28It's what Nemanja wishes he had for his career.
02:31But hey, Nikola doesn't mind his bros.
02:34He's looked up to them since his pacifier days.
02:37And though correlation doesn't equal causation, the family support seems quite good for Nikola.
02:43He's become a rather successful 41st pick.
02:47And in addition to all those accomplishments, he got to teach the world a little something.
02:52They believe in the fat boy.
02:53Yeah, don't bet against the fat boy.
02:56Don't bet against the fat boy.
02:58While he's improved his physique dramatically from his muscle-less 300-pound days,
03:03Jokic still gets called fat and out of shape.
03:06Which he doesn't love.
03:08At 6'11", 284 pounds, he's sure not cut from marble,
03:13but he's certainly someone you don't want hitting you.
03:16Even if you're, oh, I don't know, 6'9", 245?
03:21Hey, let's meet Markeith Morris.
03:23The Stretch 4 started his career in Phoenix, and in the middle of his second year,
03:27he was joined by his twin brother Marcus.
03:30And they loved it.
03:32These brothers are also extremely close.
03:34They played for Kansas together, they have the same tattoos,
03:38which is an interesting choice when you're an identical twin.
03:41Really committing to it.
03:43They lived together in Phoenix and even shared a bank account.
03:47The Morris brothers signed early rookie contract extensions with the Suns,
03:50and the team just gave their agent a lump sum and said,
03:53divide it however you want.
03:55And the Morrises were just like, what's sibling rivalry?
03:59Many thought the deal wasn't that great for the brothers,
04:02but the Morrises didn't want to test free agency and make more money.
04:06They wanted to play together.
04:08Which you'd think would endear people, at least the people of Arizona, to them.
04:13It's loyal, it's cute, it's every parent's dream.
04:16But soon after signing, the Morris brothers developed reputations as...
04:20physical players who were also malcontents with bad tempers.
04:25In the summer of 2015, Marcus was traded away.
04:29Markeith was pissed, and expressed it by demanding a trade in papers and on Twitter,
04:36fighting a teammate,
04:37and acting so grumpy the Suns owner basically called him soft.
04:42Your brother moved away.
04:43Get over it, millennial.
04:45Markeith eventually got his trade, but his reputation didn't exactly improve.
04:50I mean, yeah, Markeith can hit threes and had a role in the Lakers' 2020 championship,
04:55but also, a lot of people call him a dirty player.
04:59And they have examples to cite.
05:02Like in 2018, when he shoved OG and Anobi in the back,
05:06and then shoved the ref.
05:08Or in 2021, when he shoved Boogie Cousins as hard as he could,
05:13as Cousins helped out a teammate.
05:16When Markeith was on the Wizards, his own coach called him a bully.
05:20A talented bully though.
05:22So this is who our beef originated with.
05:24A gigantic MVP from Europe,
05:27and a bully role player with a ring.
05:29Their respective teams met in the 10th game of the 21-22 season.
05:34The Nuggets were blowing out the heat, up 17 with two and a half minutes left.
05:39And then, this happened.
05:42Morris took a hard foul,
05:44and Jokic showed us that, though not cut from marble,
05:48he's actually quite strong.
05:51Morris was on the ground for a while.
05:54They brought out a stretcher, which must have scared Jokic.
05:58Like, you think he's over on the bench, just like,
06:00oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck, I just paralyzed a guy.
06:04Morris was able to walk off the court, but he was pretty hurt.
06:07The rest of the heat team wasn't pleased.
06:10Lot of pushing and shoving.
06:11The Nuggets staff got into it.
06:14It sure looked like Jimmy Butler was telling everyone
06:16where to continue the fight later, in the back.
06:20And he meant it.
06:21Here's a picture of the whole team
06:22waiting for their fight post-game.
06:24But security intervened, cooler heads prevailed,
06:27and there was no further brawl.
06:29In the post-game press conference, Jokic was repentant.
06:33The league suspended Jokic for a game,
06:35fined Morris 50K for the initial foul,
06:38and fined Butler 30K for escalating.
06:41Though Morris got hurt and was shoved with his back turned,
06:45he received little to no sympathy
06:47from fans and experts alike.
06:49On Inside the NBA, Charles Barkley, Shaq, and Kenny Smith
06:52all defended Jokic.
06:54He had to retaliate, or he'd be thought of as soft.
06:58They cited Blake Griffin, often called soft,
07:00even by his own teammates,
07:02when he didn't retaliate to the rough stuff.
07:04Well, what about the fact that Jokic shoved Morris
07:07when his back was turned?
07:09Nah, that's Morris' fault too.
07:11When you hit me, don't turn around.
07:12If you hit me, you better not turn your damn back.
07:15The next day, Morris took to Twitter
07:16to try and project good nature
07:18and also defend himself a little
07:20with the whole my back was turned point.
07:23And he was eaten alive in the comments.
07:27People posted clips of him shoving others in the back
07:29and mocked him for saying he's built different
07:32because of, you know, the stretcher
07:34and getting super hurt and all.
07:36And Morris was really injured.
07:39He missed a lot of time with whiplash from Jokic's shove.
07:42In January, he was still out
07:44and Legion Sports tweeted, that's wild, which it is.
07:48A human, not a car accident, gave him whiplash.
07:52Morris tweeted back and sounded quite defensive,
07:56as well as angry with Jokic.
07:59Morris wasn't back in action anytime soon.
08:02He missed a total of 58 games from the Jokic shove.
08:06Jokic never reached out to apologize or anything like that.
08:10And that was just fine with Markeith.
08:13Now, all of Twitter wasn't united against Markeith Morris.
08:16There was at least one guy on the platform who defended him,
08:20which brings me to why I gave you so much information
08:22on everyone's brothers.
08:24Hours after the shove,
08:25Marcus Morris tweeted in defense of his brother.
08:28Although, is defense the right word
08:30if you're issuing a threat?
08:33Moments after that tweet hit the internet,
08:35a since deleted Twitter account was created.
08:38And that account replied to Marcus
08:40with a more explicit threat.
08:43There was no picture, no verification,
08:45but Nicola's brothers confirmed with a Nuggets Beat reporter
08:48that it was really them tweeting.
08:51Now, I wanna give you just a little bit more background
08:53on the Jokic brothers that seems relevant here.
08:57They're kind of scary.
08:58Nicola has said so as a joke,
09:01but it works because they're scary.
09:03They train at an MMA gym five days a week.
09:06Nemanja, the less intimidating looking one in this picture,
09:09was a pro MMA fighter in 2018.
09:12He only had three fights,
09:14but he did win them all by knockout.
09:17When the Jokic brothers are watching
09:18a stressful Nuggets game,
09:20Strahinja moves seats to be alone and punch chairs.
09:24When Nicola and Devin Booker scuffled in 2021,
09:27they got mad in a way
09:29that makes me worried for the security guards.
09:32And now the really bad stuff.
09:35In 2019, Strahinja was arrested
09:37for alleged domestic violence,
09:39but that charge was dropped
09:40when he pled to obstruction of phone service
09:42and felony trespassing.
09:45And in 2024, see, he's scary.
09:50And while Marcus might not be as scary
09:52or scary in the same sense,
09:54there are also reasons to not invite his ire.
09:58He certainly likes fighting,
09:59as you can see in this 2019 preseason game.
10:03No stakes, and he's ready to use the ball as a weapon
10:06and escalate from there.
10:08In the 2020 playoffs,
10:09he stepped on Luka Doncic's injured ankle,
10:12which makes him scary in a different, more evil way.
10:17If he did it on purpose, et cetera, et cetera,
10:19I'm not saying he did.
10:20This can't be used against me in the court of law.
10:23So combine all that with the fact
10:25that these sets of brothers are extremely close,
10:27and at the time, it certainly seemed
10:30like this Twitter back and forth
10:31could turn into something real and violent.
10:35About three weeks after the shove,
10:37the Nuggets and Heat faced off in Miami.
10:40Udonis Haslam said the incident was behind them,
10:43but in the same article,
10:45he heavily implied if the Jokic brothers did anything,
10:49there'd be a fight.
10:50The Jokic brothers did go to the game,
10:52but they go to all their brothers' games.
10:55Nothing happened.
10:56Nikola got booed, but not even that badly.
11:00The following year,
11:01the Heat played the Nuggets in the finals.
11:03Okay, now can we get some drama?
11:07Oh, come on.
11:09Fine, fine, Markeith wasn't even on the Heat anymore.
11:13But what about Butler and all that
11:14let's fight in the back stuff?
11:17Well, apparently that wasn't even about Jokic.
11:20Rather, someone else from the ensuing melee bugged him,
11:23but Butler wouldn't even name them.
11:25I'm not gonna leave you hanging.
11:28But even that incident was behind Butler.
11:33So that's it?
11:34Morris was out for 58 games.
11:37Nobody wants to defend him?
11:39Well, one guy does.
11:42On all the smoke,
11:43Marcus Morris said he was trying to avenge his brother
11:46and hurt Jokic the next time his team played the Nuggets.
11:49The only problem was Jokic's teammates
11:51wouldn't let him near the MVP.
11:54So he went after a different Nuggets player to make a point.
11:58I can't get him?
11:59I'm gonna get one of your teammates.
12:00Then we're gonna have to take it like that.
12:02Who?
12:03Who'd you get?
12:05Austin Rivers.
12:06I just had to tell you about him.
12:07Hey, fuck it.
12:09Everyone is laughing
12:10because Austin Rivers is not involved in the beef,
12:14much smaller than Morris.
12:16And you know, his dad's a coach,
12:18so it's funny to pick on the teacher's kid kind of thing.
12:21Some beefs are petty.
12:22Some beefs start small and linger.
12:25Not this one.
12:26This one started pretty big,
12:29but the culmination of one of the more violent
12:31on-court incidents in NBA history
12:34of players wanting to brawl in the tunnel,
12:36of Twitter threats from guys who like fighting
12:39and have temper issues,
12:41was this, an Austin Rivers headshot.
12:45Unless, of course, this beef hasn't culminated just yet.
12:49What's that, Markieff?
12:50It was a sucker shot.
12:51We gonna get his, though.