Washington Wizard's Bradley Beal 'Fined For Grabbing Orlando Magic's Evan Fournier's Throat' [VIDEO]
Washington Wizards' shooting guard Bradley Beal had been fined $15,000 for grabbing Orlando Magic guard Evan Fournier on the throat during a skirmish between the two teams on Friday night November 25 at Amway Center. Kiki VanDeWeghe NBA executive vice president of basketball operations made this announcement on Sunday November 27.
This unpleasant incident took place during the fourth-quarter scuffle that resulted from double fouls called on Beal, Fournier, Kelly Oubre Jr. and Bismack Biyombo. Amidst chaos from players on both teams, Beal assaulted Fournier by grabbing him hard on the throat.
According to Yahoo News, it all started after Orlando's Aaron Gordon missed 3 point and a scramble for the rebound. Wizards' reserve guard, Tomas Satoransky came down with the ball and pushed it towards the end in transition.Magic guard, Augustin stepped in Satoransky's path with the hope to take charge and the two made contact as Satoransky whipped a pass back to Washington wing Kelly Oubre.
The officials whistled the play dead, but Oubre kept coming and leaping in the paint for a dunk. Magic rim protector, Bismack Biyombo elevated in an attempt to block the try.Kelly Oubre pushed Biyombo in the back after they came down with Biyombo responding with a similar reaction as Oubre turned and got in Biyombo's face.
Beal came over to be a mediator between his teammate and his opponent as Fournier who also came to do the same pushed Beal, In reacting to Fournier's act, Beal let him know that his action was not appreciated that by grabbing Fournier on the throat hard enough to cause choking, Beal said after the game according to The Washington Post.
"Orlando is a physical team but we are a team that is not going to get pushed around. We are trying to find our identity and we need to get back to being a physical team, playing with intensity for 48 minutes."
The officials reviewed the donnybrook on the video tape which resulted in Beal, Biyombo, Fournier and Oubre all receiving technical fouls.The game moved on from there, with Washington winning 94-91 thanks to a strong close by All-Star point guard John Wall, who scored eight points in the final 1:38 with the game in the balance, and finished with 26 points, seven rebounds, 10 assists and three assists in 39 minutes.
Beal did not score after the unpleasant incident, he finished with 14 points on 6 for 15 shooting in 38 minutes, but he did add eight assists while looking to make plays for others against a Magic defense that was bent on marking him.
Beal could have been called for a flagrant foul or even ejected from the game, but he was not, he finished with 14 points, two rebounds and eight assists as the Wizards won the game.