Markieff Morris has been quite vocal in his displeasure with the Phoenix Suns following the departure of his twin brother and former teammate Marcus Morris. The Suns traded away Marcus to the Detroit Pistons during free agency in the hopes of clearing space to help the Suns bring in both Tyson Chandler and LaMarcus Aldridge. Chandler signed with the Suns, but Aldridge signed with San Antonio. Since then, Markieff Morris has been very public with the idea that he won't play for the Suns again.
This type of public displeasure with his team isn't something the league wants to see. Requests/demands for trades is something everybody would prefer remain a private matter. The NBA has fined Morris $10,000 for publicly demanding a trade. The league announced the fine on Tuesday:
Markieff Morris of the Phoenix Suns has been fined $10,000 for a public statement detrimental to the NBA, the league announced today.
The Morris twins took a surprising discount in their contract extensions with the Suns back in September of 2014. Markieff Morris took a lot less money than he was expected to get by signing a four-year, $32 million extension and Marcus Morris ended up with four years and $20 million. It appeared to be a packaged deal and possibly a discount by the two players in order to make sure they got to be teammates. That lasted less than a year before the Suns moved Marcus and held onto Markieff.
Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic reported that it was unlikely the Suns would meet the demands of Markieff in granting him a trade. Markieff Morris has remained adamant on Twitter that he won't be in Phoenix, which makes the upcoming media day in a couple of weeks potentially must-watch press conferences.
