Patrick Beverley was fined $25,000 by the NBA on Tuesday for throwing a ball at a fan on Sunday.
The LA Clippers guard accused a Dallas Mavericks fan sitting courtside of cursing his mother, prompting him to throw a crisp bounce pass at the man during a break in play early in the fourth quarter, resulting in his ejection.
Beverley said the fan twice told him, “F— your mother,” and that led to his reaction and ejection with 9:10 remaining in the Clippers’ 114-100 loss.
“I told the referee, I told the security,” Beverley told reporters. “I mean, I’ve never gotten ejected out of a game since I’ve been in the NBA. You know, I play hard, I play within the lines, of course. I play within the rules, of course. I’ve never been ejected in my career in the NBA, but I’m a grown man. I have morals. Of course, God is first, family is second for me, and I stand firmly behind that.
“I just, I can accept the ‘F— you, Beverley,’ the ‘F— you, Pat,’ but out of the lines of my mother, anybody who knows me, man, knows I’m a family-first guy, and there’s some things that are unacceptable. After I told the refs, I told security, the Dallas security, told both of them and again, he said it again. So if no one is going to control fans, what are we supposed to do as players?”
Don Knobler, a longtime Mavs courtside season-ticket holder known for his flamboyant wardrobe, told ESPN that he had a testy exchange with Beverley earlier in the game but not immediately before the ejection. According to Knobler, he did not use profanity, but he admitted to insulting Beverley’s mother.
According to Knobler, he told Beverley, “You’re a dirty player,” after a Beverley elbow broke Mavs point guard Dennis Smith Jr.’s tooth. After Beverley responded, Knobler replied, “Your mother,” the fan told ESPN.
“The guy said something about his mother,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers told reporters. “So, still, I told him at the end of the day, it’s not right. Fans should have control as well, and they shouldn’t call you names, especially what I heard he called Pat and said something about his mom, but it’s tough.
“I told him, ‘This is the life we live, and you’ve got to turn the other cheek, even though I know it’s hard.’ But we can’t get technicals. We just have to walk away. And then the league has to take care of stuff like that.”
Beverley was fined $25,000 by the NBA for an incident with an Oklahoma City Thunder fan after a 2017 playoff game. ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne reported at the time that Beverley, then playing for the Houston Rockets, had a verbal confrontation with Stuart Scaramucci, the son of a Thunder minority owner.