Okay, people. Let’s pass the hat. Them crazy Thunder players done got themselves in another pickle.
Fashion icon Russell Westbrook and restaurant impresario Kevin Durant (also professional basketball players, apparently) collected a total of $40,000 in fines for their conduct during Game 4 of their April 23 playoff series game against the Dallas Mavericks.
Durant was fined $15,000 for a flagrant foul 2 on Justin “Boring Name” Anderson and was booted from the game.
Durant struck Anderson in the face while attempting to block a shot, SI.com reported.
A flagrant foul 2, according to the NBA, is “unnecessary and excessive contact committed by a player against an opponent.”
“I wasn’t trying to hurt him,” Durant told ESPN after the game. “It was a flagrant, even though I wasn’t trying to intentionally foul him. The refs had to make a decision, and they made the right one. It was just bad timing. … What happened tonight was unfortunate.”
The NBA fined Westbrook $25,000 for telling a chatty Mavericks fan, “I’m not even talking to you, bro. Just sit there with your wife and shut the fuck up.”
Unlike Durant, Westbrook’s actions were no accident. Maybe that’s why his potty mouth earned a bigger fine than Durant’s swipe at Anderson’s head. Durant also texted a postgame apology to the player, reported The Dallas Morning News, and shook Anderson’s hand as the pair visited their high school basketball coach after the game.
Print headline: Fine times
This article appears in May 11-17, 2016.