Mark Daigneault says he and the Thunder respect Jokic and the Nuggets amid the recent Dort fiasco.
Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault broke his silence on Sunday regarding the latest comments by David Adelman about Luguentz Dort's controversial foul against Nikola Jokic.
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Daigneault argued that he and the Thunder respect the Nuggets in the wake of the tensions that occurred for both teams following the incident.
"I would echo and repeat what I've said every time we've played Denver for a long time, which is I have nothing but respect [for the Nuggets]. We have nothing but respect for Denver. We have respect top to bottom. We certainly have respect for Jokic, Gordon, Murray, just because those guys have endured together for so long and had so much success, but we have respect for their staff," Daigneault told reporters before the OKC's Sunday matchup against the Dallas Mavericks. "I mentioned that last year after the playoffs.
"Like I said, I have nothing but the highest respect. I said it the other night — the teams make each other better. It's a great matchup because of that, and that's all I'd say about it."
Dort infamously committed a questionable contact against Jokic last Friday, prompting the Serbian superstar to angrily react and go head-to-head against Thunder big man Jaylin Williams.
Right after the Nuggets' 127-121 overtime loss against OKC, Jokic called out Dort for his dirty play. Meanwhile, both Daigneault and Gilgeous-Alexander defended the Thunder forward from what happened.
This stance by Daigneault, Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder didn't sit well with Adelman, as the Nuggets mentor criticized the reigning champs for tolerating Dort's "malicious" antics.
"For Dort to take that shot — and then I guess it wasn't that big of a deal from their standpoint, how they looked at it — is ridiculous," Adelman told reporters about the Thunder. "That was malicious. It was a cheap shot."
Both the Thunder and the Nuggets are set to meet two more times before the 2025-26 regular season ends.
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