Marcus Morris Sr. took exception to Nikola Jokić’s hard foul on his brother

The NBA had its ugliest scene of the young season last night when Nikola Jokić laid out Markieff Morris at the end of a blowout win in Denver. Jokić reacted poorly after Morris committed a hard foul on him and delivered a cheap shot to Morris from behind that sent the Miami Heat big flying.

Tempers flared immediately afterward, but the reactions haven’t been limited to those involved in the game itself. One of the harsher critics of Jokić’s foul, unsurprisingly, was Markieff’s twin brother Marcus.

Even after Jokić had expressed remorse for his heat of the moment outburst — though it’s unclear if Marcus Morris Sr. saw that while presumably checking in on his brother — the LA Clipper made his thoughts about the incident public, tweeting, “Waited till bro turned his back smh. NOTED”.

Marcus Morris is no stranger to extracurricular activity on the court, and Dallas fans were quick to remind him of his behavior involving Luka Dončić in the 2020 playoff series between the Clippers and the Mavericks. But Morris’ response provoked a reaction from another unexpected source — Jokić’s two older brothers.

Nikola’s brothers, Strahinja and Nemanja, set up a Twitter account after the game for the sole purpose of sending Marcus Morris a not-so thinly veiled threat about going after the reigning MVP. If you’re unfamiliar with the Jokić brothers, Strahinja and Nemanja are 6’8 and 6’6 with some bulk.

Marcus Morris isn’t currently available to play, but the Clippers and Nuggets don’t meet for the first time this season until Dec. 26, giving Morris plenty of time to recover until then. Assuming Jokić serves a suspension — he has a pattern of behavior now after decking Cam Payne on his way out of the 2021 playoffs — that would be over by the end of the next month as well.

No one here is condoning any violence, and it would be lovely if the two teams could simply engage in a clean, hard-fought game, as they have many times in the past two years. But there is already a lot of resentment building up, and that could boil over if Markieff is seriously hurt following that foul. It would be foolish not to keep an eye on Marcus Morris and Nikola Jokić the next time they play each other.