Former NBA star Chandler Parsons sees the “race card” in the forecast if Nikola Jokic is not suspended for Game 5 of Nuggets-Suns.
Jokic received a technical foul for shoving new Suns owner Mat Ishbia during Sunday’s game after Ishbia held onto the ball during a play stoppage, a bit of gamesmanship that could have conceivably prevented a Nuggets fast break.
Parsons, speaking Monday morning on FanDuel TV’s “Run It Back,” predicted that there will be people who say Jokic got off lightly because he’s white if he avoids suspension in the incident.
“This isn’t Malice in the Palace,” Parsons said.
“He didn’t dive into the crowd. It wasn’t an argument. This was [Ishbia] actually trying to give his team an advantage to his team in holding the ball, and the dude was actually holding the ball. I don’t think [Jokic] knew it was the owner when that happened. Obviously they were made aware before the press conference, and I thought it was hilarious that they kept calling him ‘the fan.’
“But I will say this: Get ready for the race card when he does not get suspended, because I don’t think he’s gonna get suspended, and there’s gonna be a lot of things [like] ‘If this were Draymond or Dillon Brooks, or anybody with a past reputation, he’d be suspended.’”
For his part, Ishbia called for Jokic not to have to miss any time due to the skirmish.
“Great win for the Suns last night in an amazing series so far!” the Suns owner tweeted Monday morning.
“That should be and is the only story. 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!”
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