What happens in the underbelly of Ball Arena stays in the underbelly of Ball Arena.
At least, that’s how Jimmy Butler prefers it.
“I think there’s a lot of stuff about the whole situation that people don’t understand, and I’ll let it stay back there,” Butler said Wednesday, referring to the Denver hallways where a near-brawl occurred between the Heat and the Nuggets on Nov. 8, 2021.
He does, however, want to set the record straight about one detail.
The postgame confrontation, captured in a Denver Post photo, stemmed from a heated incident in the fourth quarter of a Nuggets blowout win. After Nikola Jokic was blindsided by Miami’s Markieff Morris while dribbling the ball up the floor, the MVP retaliated by checking Morris from behind. An injured Morris missed the next 58 games and appeared in only 35 this season.
Benches cleared, Nuggets coach Michael Malone held back Jokic, and television cameras caught Butler inviting further conflict as the initial skirmish dispersed. “Let’s fight in the back,” Butler seemed to mouth, gesturing for someone on the Nuggets’ end of the court to follow him. Jokic was suspended a game.
Morris is no longer with the Heat, but the incident still constitutes baggage for the teams matching up in the 2023 NBA Finals a year and a half later.
“It hasn’t come up in any of my thoughts, discussions, narratives. That’s a question probably more suited for the Miami Heat,” Malone said. “For us, all we’re worried about is winning Game 1. … That’s our sole focus. None of the storylines that accompany this series are going to distract us from that focus.”
Advice taken. So is it water under the bridge, Miami?
“It was a heated moment. He hurt a teammate of ours, and we wanted to have (Morris’) back at that time,” said Kyle Lowry, who was one of the Heat players general manager Andy Elisburg blocked from getting through a doorway to continue the quarrell postgame under the arena.
“We’re always going to have our teammate’s back in that moment. I don’t think there’s anything festering. We’re at a different level now. We understand it’s about winning four games right now. Anything that’s happened in the past is things that we can’t control right now. We’ve got to worry about winning basketball games, and that’s all that really matters right now.”
Another brouhaha brewed on the internet the next day, as brothers of both involved parties took shots at one another.
Marcus Morris, Markieff’s twin who also plays in the NBA, tweeted: “Waited till bro turned his back smh. NOTED.” In response, Jokic’s two brothers created a Twitter account for the sole purpose of clapping back.
“You should leave this the way it is instead of publicly threatening our brother! Your brother made a dirty play first. If you want to make a step further be sure we will be waiting for you !! Jokic Brothers,” an account with the handle @JokicBrothers tweeted. The Denver Post confirmed that it was Jokic’s brothers, Strahinja and Nemanja.
But in spite of Nikola Jokic’s central role in the drama, Butler insisted before the NBA Finals that he wasn’t actually going after Jokic when he asked for a fight in the back.
“I don’t think it has too much to do with anything,” Butler said. “This thing in the past. It’s high-level competition. But I will say I wasn’t talking to Jokic. 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 did not reveal who the individual was. He only went so far as to say he has no hard feelings toward Jokic, a sentiment echoed by his teammates.
“Tempers flared a little bit,” longtime Heat forward Udonis Haslem said. “But you’ve got alphas, you know what I’m saying? There’s alphas over here. There’s alphas over there. Nobody’s going to back down. We’re onto the next. It has no bearing on these games coming up. So it has nothing to do with now.”
