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.
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