Nikola Jokic Gets Ejected After Hitting Cam Payne In The Face In Game 4

Nikola Jokic was ejected from the Nuggets' Game 4 matchup with the Suns, Sunday.

BYCole BlakeJun 13, 20213.5K Views

Nuggets' star center Nikola Jokic was ejected from Denver's Game 4 matchup with the Phoenix Suns in their Western Conference semifinal series, Sunday night. Jokic was tossed for hitting Suns guard Cameron Payne in the face.

The ejection was issued late in the third quarter of the game with the Suns leading 83-75. After striking Payne in the face while reaching for the ball, Jokic was issued a flagrant 2 and automatically ejected.

Jokic appeared to apologize to Payne after the play.

Dustin Bradford / Getty Images

ESPN's Stephen A. Smith went off on the refs' decision on Twitter during the game.

"This is the damn problem with the @NBA right now.. you do not make that call vs Jokic a FLAGRANT2. The swipe was a frustration foul. We’ve seen worse. The fans do not attend games for this kind of call. You’ve EJECTED the league-MVP. You don’t do this.#Unreal."

"I’m turning the channel away from @NBAonTNT. No sense in even watching the rest of this game. You don’t EJECT the league-MVP on a play like that. That’s the league completely ignoring fan’ interest. You just don’t do this. See y’all on @FirstTake and Stephen A’s World tomorrow."

https://twitter.com/_/status/1404253542827823104
https://twitter.com/_/status/1404255111115948035

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Cole Blake

Cole Blake is currently an Editor at HotNewHipHop based out of Brooklyn, New York. He began working at the site as an intern back in 2018 while studying journalism at St. John’s University. In the time since, he’s graduated with a bachelor's degree and written extensively about a wide range of topics including pop culture, film & television, politics, video games, sports, and much more. He’s also covered music festivals such as Gov. Ball and Rolling Loud. You can find him publishing work for HNHH from Monday to Wednesday or on weekends. On the sports front, Cole’s a passionate NBA and NFL fan with his favorite teams being the Indianapolis Colts and Los Angeles Lakers. He also roots for the Yankees whenever he finds himself at Yankee Stadium or the Red Storm when in the company of other SJU alumni. His favorite hip-hop artists are billy woods, Earl Sweatshirt, Cam’ron, MIKE, and Mach-Hommy.