Yet another off-court legal situation involving relative of a Nuggets star
By Ben Handler
The Denver Nuggets have had their fair share of drama involving relatives of teammates ramp up in recent months. The most notable example was Michael Porter Jr. and his three separate brothers who faced legal troubles all within a short span. The most notable case was his brother Jontay who was found betting on games and was banned for life from the NBA.
But Porter Jr. wasn’t the only Nuggets player dealing with distractions during the playoff run thanks to his siblings. If you recall, there was an incident during the Nuggets’ April 22nd playoff game against the Lakers at Ball Arena when a video emerged of a fight in the crowd involving Strahinja and Nemanja, the brothers of Nikola Jokic.
Brother of Nikola Jokic arrested on suspicion of assault
The story has largely gone away publicly since, but Strahinja was arrested on suspicion of third-degree assault following a Denver Police investigation. Strahinja appeared to strike the man in the face who claims the attack was “unprovoked”.
The man was later diagnosed with a concussion and decided to press charges in May. Strahinja, in a statement, claimed he was simply defending an older man that he had known for many years.
The Jokic brother is set to be arraigned in court on August 21st of this year. This incident shouldn’t linger too long and hopefully will be resolved quickly and painlessly. At worst, he may have some issues attending games at Ball Arena in the future.
These unfortunate incidents are no reflection on the Nuggets
But the important thing for Nuggets fans to take away from this incident and the ones with MPJ’s brothers is that the actual players have nothing to do with this. Jokic isn’t responsible for his brothers’ behaviors, nor is Porter Jr. for his.
These are unfortunate distractions, and it’s definitely fair to wonder if the unfortunate timing and nature of these issues were weighing over the players during their playoff run. Ultimately, we’ll never know, and there’s nothing that can be done with these situations. Let’s just hope that this is the end of off-court incidents relating to Nuggets players for a very long time.