Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic got fined $40,000 for snatching and throwing a Pacers fan phone.
Why did Nurkic do that?
Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports:
The fan who Portland Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic confronted in Indiana allegedly shouted “your mom is trash” and said his “grandma’s a b**tch,” league sources tell @YahooSports. Nurkic’s grandma passed away of COVID-19 in 2020.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) March 22, 2022
Those comments are obviously over the line. The fan should be reprimanded for them.
But that doesn’t excuse Nurkic throwing the fan’s phone. The league can’t tolerate players escalating verbal altercations – no matter how abhorrent fans’ words – into physical altercations.
