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Markieff Morris On Incident With Nikola Jokic: “I Fouled Because I’m A Hard-Nosed Player”

Markieff Morris is finally back in action after a four-month absence for the Miami Heat. The 32-year old forward missed exactly 58 games due to a neck injury that he suffered during an incident with Nikola Jokic.

The incident occurred on November 8 when the Miami Heat and the Denver Nuggets met for an early regular season matchup. Late in the fourth quarter, Morris made a hard contact with Jokic as the Nuggets superstar was bringing the ball up. This caused Jokic to make an aggressive reaction, shoving the Heat forward in the back, unintentionally injuring him on the process.

Months after the incident, Morris now explained why he decided to initiate a hard-foul on Jokic, which escalated the whole situation up. According to Morris, the reason was that he’s a hard-nosed player who doesn’t give anything for free.

“There’s some things that happen on the court that are between players and there’s respect between the lines,” Morris said of his foul that led to Jokic’s shove. “I fouled because I’m a hard-nosed player. I’m not giving up anything for free. I’m not fouling to try to hurt somebody. I’ve never been that guy. I got nothing but the utmost respect from players. They all know that. If I wanted to foul and hurt somebody, I would have done that.”