Suns Owner Mat Ishbia Issues Statement on Brush With Nikola Jokic

Suns owner Mat Ishbia addressed his viral incident with Nikola Jokić for the first time Monday morning, and he called for there to be no punishment for either party. 

“Great win for the Suns last night in an amazing series so far! That should be and is the only story,” Ishbia wrote on Twitter. “Suspending or fining anyone over last nights incident would not be right. I have alot of respect for Jokic and don’t want to see anything like that. Excited for game 5! Go Suns!”

The incident he is referring to occurred in the the second quarter of Sunday’s Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinal series when the ball went out of bounds and landed in Ishbia’s hands on the sideline. When Jokić tried to take the ball away from Ishbia to resume the game, the Suns owner slapped the ball to another fan. Ishbia then touched Jokić, leading Jokić to subsequently make contact with Ishbia using his forearm. As a result, Jokić was assessed a technical foul. 

After the game, which Phoenix won to tie the series 2-2, Jokić said, “The fan put a hand on me first. I thought the league is supposed to protect us, or whatever.”

Nuggets coach Michael Malone expressed his disappointment in his star center being assessed a technical and said “some fan was holding the ball like he wants to be part of the game.” When Malone was informed that the fan was the Suns’ primary owner, he added, “I don’t give a s---. I really don’t care.”