Nikola Jokic has a new trick up his sleeve.
The Denver Nuggets star Jokic went viral during Thursday’s game against the Golden State Warriors over his very shrewd new tactic. During the second quarter at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., Warriors guard Gary Payton II had just made a layup at the rim.
Jokic immediately scooped up the ball and intentionally inbounded it into the path of Payton, who was about to run back up the floor. As a result of Payton “getting in the way” of the pass, the referees whistled Payton for a delay-of-game violation.
Here is the video.
Jokic intentionally tries to inbound the ball as GP3 is walking past so that the refs give the Warriors a delay of game warning pic.twitter.com/WtsUa37SL1
— Rate the Refs (@Rate_the_Refs) October 24, 2025
That was actually an incredibly intelligent move by Jokic. While a team’s first delay-of-game violation only results in a warning, any subsequent violation for the rest of the contest results in a one-shot technical foul.
The three-time NBA MVP Jokic is already perhaps the single most skilled basketball player in the world right now, averaging 29.6 points, 12.7 rebounds, and 10.2 assists per game for the Nuggets last season. But Jokic also has the smarts to go along with it and already drew attention in the past over his clever time-wasting tactics.
Unfortunately though, Jokic and the Nuggets fell in overtime to the Warriors by a final score of 137-131 (despite the former Finals MVP dropping a 21-13-10 triple-double). Denver fans did at least get something to cheer about however in the form of an out-of-body experience by forward Aaron Gordon.
