Patrick Beverley had an eventful game on Sunday! In the third quarter, the Clippers guard knocked out Dennis Smith’s tooth while diving for a loose ball. But it was the fourth quarter where Beverley got into it with a fan—and got ejected.
It came after a tie-up with 9:10 left in the game. After the whistle, Beverley got the ball and threw a bounce pass right at the dick and balls of a flamboyantly dressed Dallas Mavericks fan in the front row.
That was longtime Mavs superfan Don Knobler. Knobler later told reporters he called Beverley a dirty player—presumably after knocking out a tooth of a player on the Mavs—and that he also told him “your mother.”
Beverley, however, had a different recollection of the events. Talking to reporters postgame, he said it was just a bit more than “your mother.” What did Knobler say, according to Beverley:
‘Fuck [your] mother’ twice.… I’ve never heard ‘fuck your mother.’ Never. There’s only so much you can stand for. I can accept ‘fuck you and f-you Pat Beverley,’ I can accept that. I’m a grown man. But, you know, you bring family into it—especially in a basketball game—it’s only so much you can tolerate as a man.
Knobler stayed to watch the rest of the game. After the Clippers lost to the Mavs, 114-100, Doc Rivers said he didn’t want Beverley to get a technical but he also understood his frustrations.
Maybe the NBA could turn this into a game? Fans can insult players’ mothers, but players can chuck basketballs at them if they do. Or maybe players could get extra points for throwing balls at ridiculously dressed fans? Just spitballing here.