The NBA has suspended Mavericks forwards Naji Marshall and P.J. Washington and Suns center Jusuf Nurkic for their roles in an on-court altercation during Friday’s game between the two teams, the league announced today in a press release (Twitter link).
Marshall has been hit with a four-game suspension, Nurkic will be suspended for three games, and Washington will serve a one-game suspension, according to the NBA.
Nurkic was called for an offensive foul with 9:02 remaining in the third quarter of Friday’s game and began heading toward his basket before turning back and exchanging words with Marshall and Washington. The incident escalated when Nurkic struck Marshall in the side of the head. Marshall responded by throwing a punch that connected with Nurkic’s face as the Suns big man was shoved to the floor by Washington (Twitter video links).
According to the league, Marshall “attempted to further engage Nurkic in a hostile manner in the corridor outside the locker rooms” after the players were ejected from the game. That’s presumably why the Mavs forward got the longest suspension of the bunch.
Washington will serve his suspension on Saturday night when the Mavs visit Portland. In addition to missing that game, Marshall will sit out Monday’s contest in Sacramento and Wednesday’s in Houston, as well as Dallas’ home game vs. Cleveland next Friday.
Nurkic will begin serving his three-game ban on Saturday when the Suns play in Golden State. He’ll also miss games vs. Memphis on Tuesday and in Indiana next Saturday.
As Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets, Marshall’s four-game suspension will cost him $236,453 of his $8,571,429 salary, while Nurkic will forfeit $375K,000 of his $18,125,000 salary. Those figures are based on each player losing 1/145th of his total salary for each game of the suspension.
Because his suspension is just for one game, Washington will only give up 1/174th of his $15.5MM salary, which works out to $89,080, Marks notes.
The Mavericks and Suns will receive tax variance credits worth 50% of the total forfeited salary, slightly reducing their projected end-of-season luxury tax payments, Marks adds (via Twitter).