As the Rockets left the floor for halftime of their Game 2 loss last night, Houston center Nene pushed back a heckling Jazz fan who got in James Harden’s face.
When the Rockets returned to the court, Harden apparently knocked the phone of a heckler (presumably the same guy, because how many Jazz fans that annoying were in that section of Houston’s arena last night?):
The NBA fined Rodney Hood $35,000 for slapping the phone from a fan’s hand earlier this year.
But that fan was leaning back, not toward the player, like Harden’s heckler was at least going into halftime. And Harden isn’t seen actually hitting the phone. It just looks as if he’s reaching toward it and sounds as if he makes contact. Will that plausible deniability get the Rockets superstar out of league punishment?
