The Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night, but center Timofey Mozgov was upset after the game.
The Russian wasn't happy because a fan in the second row at the Target Center had reached out and tapped his rear end.
"Somebody touched me," Mozgov said of the invasion of his personal space, according to ESPN's Dave McMenamin. "My English is not good. I'd say bad words."
The incident occurred during the fourth quarter of Cleveland's 125-99 win.
Front row fan touching Mozgov! pic.twitter.com/4apoutTH7p
— DBAWeiner (@weigel_dean) January 9, 2016
"Yeah, I looked at this dude," Mozgov told reporters. "He smiled. Like, I don't know why he touched me. But, you know, the game was going on, so I got to throw it out and keep running the game, right."
In the Cavaliers' locker room postgame, Mozgov's teammates apparently took turns watching footage of the incident on a reporter's phone.
"That's not the craziest thing I've seen in my day," LeBron James said. "But it is pretty wild."
The NBA generally takes such incidents seriously. Before every game, arenas broadcast warnings for spectators to not interfere with players. Last week, a fan at a Utah Jazz game was ejected and banned from NBA premises for one year after shining a laser pointer at Houston Rockets star James Harden.
