Three players have been fined for their actions over the weekend, according to press releases from the NBA.
Timberwolves guard Patrick Beverley was fined $20K and Bucks guard George Hill was docked $15K for their altercation in Saturday’s game that resulted in both players being ejected (video link).
Taurean Prince and Serge Ibaka were entangled while battling for a rebound late in the first quarter when Beverley shoved Ibaka from behind. Hill responded by pushing Beverley.
Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic, who is sidelined with plantar fasciitis, received a $40K fine for taking a fan’s cell phone after Sunday’s game in Indiana and throwing it into the crowd.
According to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link), the fan in question allegedly made disparaging comments about Nurkic’s mother and grandmother. Nurkic’s grandmother passed away of COVID-19 in 2020.
I don’t get what nurk was thinking, your a foot taller than someone and tried to stare them into being scared? Dumbest way to spend 40k that I’ve ever witnessed
I think he was mad this kid was insulting his mom and his dead grandmother maybe?
I don’t get what you’re thinking. Nurkic makes 12 million a year. This means he makes 146k a game. 40k to a guy making 12M a year is 400 bucks to a guy making 120k a year. It aint much dude.
I just read that and came back to this post. smh
Even though he makes 12M, he lives in the same world as the rest of us where 40k buys a lot more than 400 bucks. No, it doesn’t destroy him on its own but he would be pretty careless not to be annoyed by it and cause him pause about releasing his frustration in public. He can pay people much less to take abuse in private. It’s all business.
People who make 12M a year tend to be pretty careless with money. I am sure he could GAF.
$40k to throw someone’s cell phone. That’s scholarship money. And it was a kid if I remember. I dunno
Nurk should have left the cellphone alone and thrown the kid instead
Beverly was trying to give Ibaka a whiplash but he is 100 lbs lighter than Jokic.
There’s security at games for a reason. Go through the proper channels. He’s lucky he didn’t incite another Rumble at the Palace.
If he did that to me I would of snatched his chain off his neck and tossed that.
I’ve never been to an nba game but have you ever heard how visiting bullpen pitchers take so much trash talking. Nba players need to man up unless it’s racist comments, death threats.
Yes, I’m sure that’s exactly what you would have done.
I mean, the fan basically made fun of the fact that his grandmother died. That’s pretty screwed up
I was at a Game where Vernon Maxwell charged up into the stands followed by Robert Horry & Assistant Coach Larry Smith.
Now Maxwell just didn’t go a couple of rows into the stands he went 1/2 way up to the 1st walkway around the arena to go after a fan.
Maxwell was fined $20.000 & suspended 10 games costing him another $20,732, the suspension was the 2nd longest handed out at the time & the fine tied for the highest fine handed out at the time.
The NBA didn’t fine Robert Horry or Larry Smith because the NBA felt that they were trying to stop Maxwell & be peacekeepers
That’s the thing though. It seems like these fan interactions in the NBA are crossing into the racist/talking bad about players’ families. It’s not like the players are confronting fans for saying they suck. I’m sure if baseball fans started throwing racial slurs/talking bad about the players’ families, baseball players would react.
The biggest difference, imo, is that most of these interactions are happening with fans who are sitting courtside. No other sport has seating that basically puts you at arms length away from the players without some sort of barrier/fence/guardrail/glass between players and the fans. The only thing I can guess is that most of these fans feel “empowered” because they’re sitting courtside. They must feel like they can do anything they want because the price they paid for the seats.
Beverley & Hill yeah, their fine is ok… but why on earth they fined Nurkic?
I can’t see no wrong in what he did, as a matter of fact he was very restrained, could have been a lot worse… no need to fine the man for doing the right thing!
Hopefully there’s repercussions for the fan too. He’s lucky all Nurk did was throw his phone. What he said definitely crossed the line.