Denver Nuggets star big man Nikola Jokic told local reporters on Tuesday he picks up fouls on purpose late in games just to piss off head coach Michael Malone.

Earlier in his career, Nikola Jokic had a tendency to pick up a lot of fouls in a short amount of time. However, with the help of Michel Malone, Jokic has only fouled out once this entire season.

But because Jokic and Malone have such a close relationship, The Joker has the luxury of being able to pick up fouls so he can make his demonstrative coach angry, via Sean Keeler of the Denver Post:

 The last word goes to Jokic, who has trimmed his second-half foul rate this season, getting whistled for one every 11.2 minutes after halftime. That’s down more than a full minute from last winter when he was tagged with one every 10.1 minutes, and down two minutes from 2016-17, when the clip was one every 9.3 minutes. When a reporter pointed out his improvement on ticky-tack fouls late in games Monday, the Serbian grinned again and cracked: “Yeah, sometimes I do that just to (expletive) Coach (Malone off).”

The Nuggets have the second-best record in the Western Conference and Nikola Jokic is playing like an MVP, so the star center can afford to have some fun with his coach once in a while.

In 45 games this season, Jokic is averaging 19.6 points, 10.0 rebounds and 7.7 assists per game while shooting 50.5 percent from the field and 32.3 percent from beyond the arc.