Houston Rockets’ guard Patrick Beverley said that the NBA should have done more to protect him from an incident with a fan during Game 4 of the Rockets-Thunder series in Oklahoma City on Friday.
A foul left Beverley on the ground right by a fan sitting courtside. The fan was later identified as Stuart Scaramucci, the son of Thunder minority owner Jay Scaramucci. According to Beverley, Scaramucci had some explicit words for Beverley – shouting in his face and waving a clapper while screaming “F— you Patrick Beverley” multiple times.
Check out what happened below.
Beverley did not appreciate this and confronted the fan even after the game ended and got into a heated argument.
On Sunday, the NBA fined Beverley $25,000 for his altercation with the fan. While the Rockets’ guard fully accepted the fine, he believes the NBA should have done more to protect him.
“I’m OK with the hazing. I’m OK with the boos. I’m OK with other fans rooting for their team. But I’m not OK with the blatant disrespect while I’m on the ground after a foul and a fan is yelling out to me, ‘F-you Patrick Beverley, F-you Patrick Beverley, F-you Patrick Beverley,’ and waving a clapper in my face,” Beverley told reporters, “I’m not comfortable with that. So if the NBA won’t protect the players in that situation, I feel the need as a man, as a grown man who has children, who has morals and who stands up for the right thing, I have to protect myself.”
The conclusion of some “he said, she said” can all be summed up by Beverley claiming he did nothing but tell the fan that it’s all a game, and that he is a professionl.
“At the end of the day, brother, this is a game. I’m a professional. You’re a man. I’m a man.”
However, Scaramucci claimed that Beverley did much more, even hitting his wife. Scaramucci said that Beverley threw his hands up and as they came down, he hit his wife.
Beverley claimed that this was not the first time he feels as though he was threatened by fans as an NBA player.
To put this in all perspective, this isn’t the first incident I had with OKC,” Beverley said. “I had a ballboy tell me he was going to kill me. What type of league, what is this? I had to have a police officer out in front of my house, I can’t be on the same floor as my teammates. My first year in NBA basketball I have a person saying on Twitter he was going to kill me. So, what to do?
Beverley is urging the NBA to pay more attention to their players and the protection of their players.
So, agree or disagree with Patrick Beverley?
Was it all just heat of the moment playoff basketball? Should Beverley have let the situation go?
The Rafters 