Heat are keeping focus on winning
Past scuffle with Jokic is not on the radar as NBA Finals gets going
DENVER — The logistics of the NBA Finals at Ball Arena have members of the Miami Heat routinely walking past the Denver Nuggets’ locker room.
A year ago, that could have been an issue.
Nineteen months ago, it could have been the closest thing to a basketball riot.
Now? A blip in NBA time, both teams having moved on.
To a degree, because Markieff Morris moved on, the veteran forward departing the Heat last summer in free agency for the Brooklyn Nets.
On Nov. 8, 2021, as the clock was ticking toward the conclusion of a 113-96 Nuggets blowout victory over the visiting Heat, Morris, as he has been known to do over a career checkered by overly aggressive play, got overly aggressive with an intentional foul in transition against Nuggets star center Nikola Jokic with 2:39 remaining. In retaliation, Jokic, with the thrust of all of his 284 pounds, shoved a retreating Morris from behind, sending Morris to the court for several minutes.
Jokic would be suspended one game by the NBA.
Morris, who would miss the next 59 games due to the whiplash severity from the shove, was fined $50,000 for what was deemed a Flagrant 2 foul.
Jokic was immediately remorseful, saying that night, “It’s a stupid play. I feel bad.”
But the incident wasn’t just about shove, counter-shove.
Heat forward Jimmy Butler was fined $30,000, “for attempting to escalate the altercation and failing to comply with an NBA Security interview as part of the review process pertaining to an on-court matter.”
The temperature in the immediate wake of the incident rose to the degree that Butler had to be restrained on the court from going after a Nuggets player, with Heat players then later blocked by the sizable presence of 6-foot-6
Heat general manager Andy Elisburg from entering the hallway leading to the Nuggets locker room that is mere strides away.
“I didn’t know for my birthday that I was going to be a meme,” Elisburg would later quip about that hallway photo of one of the most impressive block outs in the Heat’s 35 seasons.
“The picture looked more than it really was. But you just want to make sure you try to keep everyone as safe as you can.”
As the teams prepared for Thursday night’s Game 1 of their best-of-seven championship series, Butler said any thoughts of carryover were long gone, with the teams having met three times since then during the regular season.
“I don’t think so,” Butler said. “I think there’s a lot of, like, stuff about the whole situation that people don’t understand, and I’ll let that stay back there. But I don’t think it has too much to do with anything, this thing in the past. It’s high-level competition.”
As animated as he grew in the moment, Butler said his ire was not directed at Jokic.
“But I will say I wasn’t talking to Jokic,” Butler said. “That wasn’t my beef. Make sure you write that. The individual who I was talking to definitely knew who I was talking to.” Butler declined to offer further details. The aftermath, though, was real, including extra NBA security when the Nuggets visited Miami later that season, with Jokic’s beefy brothers sitting courtside, almost as a personal layer of security and intimidation, in a game Morris was unavailable due to his neck injury. Ahead of that game, on their joint Twitter account, Jokic brothers Strahinja and Nemanja had posted, “If you want to make a step further be sure we will be waiting for you !! Jokic Brothers.”
Months later, it was a moment that still had Morris indignant, posting on Twitter. “Imagine having a 300 pound sloppy fat boy run full speed and make direct contact with your spine!”
That was after Morris posted, in the immediate wake of the incident. “No doubt I took a hard foul which I always do but I’ve never hit a man with his back turned!”
That was then.
Now there are greater concerns, with the NBA’s ultimate prize at stake.
“I think it was just something that it was a heated moment,” guard Kyle Lowry said during his pre-Finals media session. “It hurt a teammate of ours, and we wanted to have his back. At that time, we’re always going to have our teammate’s back in that moment.
“But I don’t think there’s anything festering. We’re at a different level. We understand that it’s about winning four games right now. Anything that has happened in the past is things that we can’t control right now.”