Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry won’t be suspended for throwing his mouthpiece at the direction of referee Scott Wall during the final seconds of their team’s 10-point loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. Instead, the professional basketball player will be fined $50,000.
The announcement was made by Kiki Vandeweghe, Executive Vice President, Basketball Operations. The league statement regarding the matter said that the incident, for which Curry was ejected, occurred with 43.6 seconds remaining in the 4th quarter of the Warriors’ 111-101 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday, Oct. 21 at FedEx Forum.
According to USA TODAY Sports’ Sam Amick, the $50,000 fine is the maximum allowed per league rules based on that action. This isn’t the first time Curry has been fined for the same charges. After the Game 6 of the 2016 NBA Finals, he paid a sum of $25,000 fine when he tossed another mouthpiece into the stands.
Meanwhile, his teammate Andre Iguodala was also fined $15,000 for verbally abusing a game official during the incident. Kevin Durant was ejected from the game as well after going off on an official, but no fine would be charged to him. Neither player will face suspension.
No Bad Intention At All
Steph Curry gets ejected after throwing his mouthpiece at the ref pic.twitter.com/aY7jcKPtCq
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) October 22, 2017
The incident led to Stephen Curry’s ejection in the game. Prior to the announcement of his penalty, he already commented on the incident, saying, “I thought I got fouled and my frustration boiled over, did something stupid, deserved to get kicked out.”
When asked about whether he intended tossing his mouthpiece at the Wall, he replied: “If I tried to throw it at him, or hit him, I have pretty good aim.”
Moving forward, the Golden State Warriors, now 1-2 on the season, will be back in action tonight against the Mavericks in Dallas.
Twitter Reaction
On the other hand, people who are upset about the league’s decision on Curry’s action took to Twitter their sentiments.
Nick Wright of First Things First weighed in , tweeting, “I know the NBA always protects its stars, but not suspending someone for throwing something directly at a ref during a tantrum is insanity.”
“Steph Curry is officially the only player in the damn league who could throw something at a fan & then a ref and serve 0 games suspended,” he added.
Mark Gunnels tweeted : “Is the NBA really not going to suspend Steph Curry for throwing his mouthpiece near the direction of a ref? That would be awful.”
[Featured Image by Zhong Zhi/Getty Images]
