National Basketball Association

Markieff Morris: Flagrant foul on former teammate Goran Dragic just 'a hard foul'

Published Mar. 3, 2015 12:31 p.m. ET

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Monday night's matchup between the Phoenix Suns and the Miami Heat was Goran Dragic's first game against his former team since being traded to Miami at the deadline. Things got chippy between the two teams, as Hassan Whiteside and Alex Len engaged in a bit of a kerfuffle that resulted in both players being ejected.

That wasn't the only ejection on the night, however, as Markieff Morris was sent to the locker room early for a hard foul on his former teammate, Dragic.

As you can see in the video, Morris attempts to go over and check on Dragic, but the officials stop him, likely in an effort to prevent any further escalation by other players who might be unaware of Morris' intentions in approaching Dragic. Morris reiterated after the game that he didn't mean to harm Dragic and thought that he was simply making a basketball play.

"It was a hard foul," Morris said. "It was a basketball play, I thought. The refs thought otherwise and kicked me out. Just overexaggerating. I thought he did fall hard. He was in the air and jumped back. My momentum hit him hard. It was a hard foul. It didn't look intentional like I tried to push him under there or none of that."

(Read more at AZCentral.com)