The NBA has fined Cleveland Cavaliers center Tristan Thompson $15,000 for flipping off a fan in Brooklyn earlier this week.
Following the Cavs' 99-97 victory over the Brooklyn Nets at the Barclays Center on Monday night, Thompson turned toward the crowd and directed a middle finger to his haters - as seen in the video embedded below. It's unclear exactly what warranted the reaction, but the gesture will cost Thompson $15K all the same.
Thompson isn't the only player to be slapped with a fine as a result of his interactions with hecklers this season.
A few weeks back, Golden State Warriors All-Star Kevin Durant was fined $25,000 by the NBA for telling a heckler to "Watch the fucking game and shut the fuck up."
Of the incident, Durant told Yahoo Sports' Chris Haynes, "Grown men can't come to games and heckle grown men. That's corny, that's weak." He added, "You come into a game to heckle a grown man, 'you soft,' 'you weak,' Draymond this, Draymond that, 'you're a bitch,' [and] you're going to sleep as a grown man doing that to another person?"
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Los Angeles Clippers guard Patrick Beverley also got caught up with a heckler during Sunday night's loss in Dallas. According to Beverley, a heckler later identified as Mavs season ticket holder Don Knobler, twice told him, "Fuck your mother." Beverley retaliated by throwing the ball in Knobler's direction, which resulted in him being tossed from the game and a $25,000 fine.
"I just, I can accept the 'F--- you, Beverley,' the 'F--- you, Pat,' but out of the lines of my mother, anybody who knows me, man, knows I'm a family-first guy, and there's some things that are unacceptable. After I told the refs, I told security, the Dallas security, told both of them and again, he said it again. So if no one going to control fans, what are we supposed to do as players?"
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