NBA news: Russell Westbrook accuses CHILD of HITTING him during Thunder defeat to Nuggets
RUSSELL WESTBROOK instructed a courtside father to “be careful” after the Oklahoma City Thunder star claimed he was “hit” by the man’s son.
NBA: Russell Westbrook PUSHED by young Nuggets fan
Oklahoma City Thunder lost 121-112 to the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday night to lose pace on the Western Conference second seeds.
The Colorado-based franchise now have four wins more than Billy Donovan’s side, who are nevertheless primed for a top-four finish.
The result was somewhat overshadowed by a peculiar incident involving Westbrook and a young Nuggets fan, however.
As the third quarter drew to a close, Westbrook charged down the left side of the court until a stoppage in play was called.
Stopping at the referee’s whistle, Westbrook felt contact from a courtside fan and turned around quickly.
The supporter in question was a young boy, sitting next to his father, both of whom received a talking to from Westbrook.
After the game, the former MVP opened up on the incident and urged the NBA to introduce stricter rules on the conduct of courtside fans.
“He hit me,” Westbrook said. "So I told his dad: ‘Be careful man, you can’t have your son just hitting random people. I don’t him, he don’t know me. You just got to control your kids, it’s that simple.’
I told his dad: ‘Be careful man, you can’t have your son just hitting random people.'
“He’s responsible for his kid to watch the game, sit there, have fun, enjoy.
“For all the fans, though, there’s too much leeway for the fans to be able to touch the players and get away with it.
“And then we can’t react and do the things that we need to do to protect ourselves.
“So it’s important that they understands - kids, whoever it is, dads, mums - that they can say whatever they want as long as it’s respectful. But touching, to me, is off limits.”
Asked whether initially knew it was a child who touched him, Westbrook replied: “Na na na, then I turned around and I see it’s a kid.
“But, initially, you don’t know that but you can’t… What d’you want me to do - hop in the stands?
“But there’s got to be some type of rule or some type of boundary set that we can’t allow that.”