The NBA handed down suspensions following a brawl between the Dallas Mavericks and Phoenix Suns.
The incident happened in the Mavericks’ 98-89 win over the Suns on Friday in Phoenix. The fight broke out with 9:02 remaining in the third quarter after Suns center Jusuf Nurkić committed an offensive foul against Mavericks center Daniel Gafford as Dallas led 60-44. Nurkić walked up to Dallas forward Naji Marshall afterward and escalated the altercation by striking Marshall in the head. Marshall retaliated by throwing a punch at Nurkić.
Both were ejected from the contest on Friday. One day later, Nurkić was handed a three-game suspension without pay, while Marshall received a four-game suspension without pay. The league noted that Marshall ‘attempted to further engage Nurkić in a hostile manner in the corridor outside the locker rooms’ following the on-court incident, likely leading to his stiffer punishment.
Dallas forward P.J. Washington — who shoved Nurkić to the ground after Nurkić traded blows with Marshall — was also ejected and suspended one game without pay for ‘escalating’ the incident.
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After the game concluded, Suns head coach Mike Budenholzer said the incident is ‘not good for anybody.’
‘I think that level of altercation is not good for our team. It’s not good for anybody individually, it’s not good for our league,’ he said, adding that he didn’t ‘know all the details of what got it to that point.’
Dallas head coach Jason Kidd praised his team for sticking up for each other.
“Protecting each other, that’s what that was,’ Kidd said Friday. ‘Teammates, emotions can get high. For our guys to protect one another, we talk about it, it was displayed tonight. It was good to see those guys protect each other. Now we move on, gotta get ready for Portland.”
Dallas star Kyrie Irving pledged to cover any fines Marshall and Washington received: ‘That’s part of basketball sometimes. Haven’t seen it (in a while). Maybe that’s just the way we end 2024, where somebody actually swings in the NBA. Maybe that will help our ratings.’
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