05/03/24 04:21:00
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05/03 16:19 CDT Pat Beverley throws ball at Pacers fans, later tells reporter
to leave his locker-room interview
Pat Beverley throws ball at Pacers fans, later tells reporter to leave his
locker-room interview
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) --- Milwaukee Bucks guard Pat Beverley indicated a video
showing him throwing a ball at a spectator on Thursday was misleading but later
added that "I have to be better."
Cameras showed Beverley sitting on the bench and tossing a ball into the stands
and hitting a fan with about 2 minutes left in Milwaukee's 120-98 Game 6 loss
at Indiana that knocked the Bucks out of the playoffs. After a different fan
threw the ball back to Beverley, who was holding his arm out for it, the Bucks
guard fired it back at that spectator.
Beverley declined to answer a question about it while speaking to reporters
after the game. But he replied to an X post that showed the video by saying,
"Not Fair at all. Exchanged between a fan and our ball club all night. We
warned and asked for help all night. Not fair."
Six hours later, Beverley issued another X post saying, "But I have to be
better. And I will."
Also during his postgame media session, Beverley wouldn't allow a particular
journalist to ask a question after discovering that she didn't subscribe to his
podcast. He told her to get her microphone out of his face and then eventually
asked her to leave the interview circle.
The journalist was identified on social media as ESPN producer Malinda Adams.
She tweeted Friday that Beverley called her and apologized.
"I appreciate it and accept it," she said in her tweet. "The Bucks also reached
out to apologize."
Bucks coach Doc Rivers said Friday he had spoken to Beverley.
"That's not the Milwaukee way or the Bucks way," Rivers said. "We're better
than that. Pat feels awful about that. He also understands emotionally --- this
is an emotional game and things happen --- unfortunately, you're judged
immediately and he let the emotions get the better of him."
Rivers said Beverley called Adams on his own without being told to do so by the
Bucks.
"I had not seen that interview," Rivers said. "I just heard that that happened.
So we talked about that and then the ball-throwing incident. And he made the
comment to me about what was being said back his way and I just said, ?I get
it, but we're coaches and athletes, we're the entertainers or whatever we are.
Sometimes they can be in the wrong, but you just can't do those certain
things.' And he knows that as well."
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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA
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