The NBA has fined Houston Rockets guard Patrick Beverley $25,000 for confronting a fan after Game 3, the league announced on Sunday.
Beverley allegedly approached the fan, who is the son of Thunder minority owner Jay Scaramucci, once the game ended after an earlier incident occured during the contest.
Patrick Beverley approached a fan after the game last night. League sources say NBA is looking into the situation for possible discipline.
— Fred Katz (@FredKatz) April 22, 2017
“The Rockets are taking care of the situation,” Beverley said on Saturday morning. “I’ll talk more after the investigation is done.”
Beverley is in his fifth campaign with the Rockets and perhaps his most impressive to date. He’s made a living off of irritating opposing players and fans during his time in the league, and is unquestionably one of the most hated players in Oklahoma City.
Two people in attendance of Game 3 told Def Pen Hoops that Beverley was the victim of several derogatory racial remarks during the contest. A select group of fans in Chesapeake Energy Arena, not all of the fans in attendance, had stepped over the line on Friday night.
Whether Beverley’s postgame incident with the fan was caused by anything related to racism isn’t known at this time, as the league continues to investigate the details.
The league could look to use arena cameras to aid in the investigation. Chesapeake Energy Arena Director of Marketing Tim Linville released an official statement on the postgame situation, per Fred Katz of normantranscript.com.
“The facility is aware of an incident occurring immediately following last night’s game and will cooperate with the NBA in any way we can. As of this time, we have not received any requests for information or video from the NBA.”
This, according to independent Thunder media site Thunder Digest, is a short clip of the altercation:
Here is a small GIF of the live video between the fan and Patrick Beverley post game pic.twitter.com/4ZGkYvOx5c
— Oklahoma City Thunder Digest © (@ThunderDigest) April 22, 2017
The Rockets will play in Game 4 at Chesapeake Energy Arena on Sunday afternoon.
