They'll lighten Nikola Jokic's wallet by $25,000 for trying to put the ball in play the other night, but, hey, AT LEAST HE DIDN'T GET SUSPENDED. That's the preferred take on this, apparently, painting the NBA as restrained and proportional instead of, you know, ridiculous.
Did I say ridiculous?
Ridiculous is 25 bills because a fan -- in this case, a team owner -- literally tried to take Jokic's ball and go home.
Ridiculous is the ball going out of bounds and Suns owner Mat Ishbia picking it up and trying to keep it as Jokic reached for it, which resulted in Jokic bumping him with an elbow.
Down went Ishbia in a flop worthy of Bill Laimbeer. Springing into action was the NBA, still spooked by the Malice in the Palace two decades ago, deciding between suspending Jokic and fining him because he touched a fan.
(In this case, and we can't say this enough, a team owner.)
Here's what I think: I think the team owner should have been ejected from the premises, but of course I believe in unicorns and fairy dust, too.
I think, more realistically, the Association should have suspended and/or fined him, not Jokic.
I think, as much as you cannot, absolutely cannot, touch a fan if you're a player, you also can't interfere with game play if you're a fan. One should be as forbidden as the other. And if you grab the ball and even momentarily resist giving it back to an inbounding player, you are interfering with game play.
That's what Mat Ishbia did. Sorry he fell down and went boom, but that's not the primary offense here. That's not the punishable offense.
Even if the NBA clearly thinks so.
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