Beverley: I have to protect myself if NBA won't protect me
Patrick Beverley wants fans to be held to the same standards as players.
The Houston Rockets guard voiced his displeasure with the league after earning a $25,000 fine for jawing with a fan in Game 3, and said the NBA has to do a better job of protecting its players.
"I'm OK with the hazing. I'm OK with the boos. I'm OK with other fans rooting for their team," Beverley told ESPN's Ramona Shelburne. "But I'm not OK with the blatant disrespect while I'm on the ground after a foul and a fan is yelling out to me, 'F-you Patrick Beverley, F-you Patrick Beverley, F-you Patrick Beverley,' and waving a clapper in my face."
Here is a small GIF of the live video between the fan and Patrick Beverley post game pic.twitter.com/4ZGkYvOx5c
— Thunder Digest (@Thunder_Digest) April 22, 2017
Video surfaced of Beverley confronting Stuart Scaramucci, the son of Oklahoma City Thunder minority owner Jay Scaramucci, after Friday's contest, reportedly prompting the Rockets to request the league to look into the incident.
"I accept the 25 (the NBA fine), it's OK," Beverley said. "But at the same time, if it happens again and the NBA won't protect its players, I feel a need as a person and as a man with two young boys, who has a daughter, who has strong morals about myself, who was raised by a single mother to protect myself if no one else is going to protect me.
"And when I mean 'protect myself' I don't mean go up there and start a fight with a person, because that's not what all happened. I walked up to the guy and I told the guy 'At the end of the day, brother, this is a game. I'm a professional, you're a man, I'm a man. That's it and I left it at that."
Beverley has been considered a villain among Thunder fans after causing Russell Westbrook to tear his meniscus in his right knee during the 2013 postseason.