Golden State star Steph Curry and his coach, Steve Kerr, have each been fined $25,000 by the NBA after Curry was controversially fouled out in the Warriors’ 115-101 Game 6 loss against the Cavaliers on Thursday night.
Curry was fined for throwing his mouthpiece into the crowd, while Kerr was fined for criticising the officiating. Kerr described some of the calls against Curry as “absolutely ridiculous”.
In a further twist, Curry also said his father-in-law “almost got arrested” at Quicken Loans Arena after being mistaken for a renowned con artist. Security officials stopped to check the credentials of the father of Curry’s wife, Ayesha, because they thought he looked like David Aminzadeh, a known fraudster who has sneaked into countless sporting events.
“That was kind of a traumatic situation where [Ayesha’s] dad almost got arrested,” Curry said. “So it was kind of a tough situation to deal with in a hostile environment. All in all, it’s just a game. I hope that everybody is all right.”
Curry was ejected for throwing his mouthpiece into the crowd with 4:22 left in the fourth quarter, after being called for his disqualifying sixth foul. The mouthpiece hit the son of one of the Cavs’ owners, who was sitting in the front row. Quicken Loans Arena erupted, and a clearly frustrated Curry was calmed down by Klay Thompson and Shaun Livingston. It was the first time Curry had fouled out since December 2013.
Curry apologized immediately to the fan hit by the mouthpiece – Andrew Forbes, son of minority owner Nate Forbes – and the two shook hands. Curry finished with 30 points but was led away to jeers from the Cleveland fans.
The NBA ruled a fine was the appropriate punishment for coach and player, and chose not to hand down a suspension. Curry will be available for Game 7 on Sunday.
“I’ve thrown my mouthpiece before. I usually aim at the scorer’s table. I was off aim. Definitely didn’t mean to throw it at a fan,” Curry said. “That was obviously not where I was trying to take my frustration out.”
Curry was angry about several fouls that were called against him throughout the game, as was Kerr.
“He had every right to be upset. He’s the MVP of the league. He gets six fouls called on him; three of them were absolutely ridiculous,” Kerr said. “He steals the ball from Kyrie [Irving] clean at one point. LeBron [James] flops on the last one. [Referee] Jason Phillips falls for that for a flop. As the MVP of the league, we’re talking about these touch fouls in the NBA finals.
“Let me be clear: we did not lose because of the officiating. They totally outplayed us, and Cleveland deserved to win. But those three of the six fouls were incredibly inappropriate calls for anybody, much less the MVP of the league.”
After her father was stopped, Ayesha Curry tweeted that her father was racially profiled.
Police racial profiled my father and told him to remove credentials and tried to arrest him. It's been a long night for me. I apologize:
— Ayesha Curry (@ayeshacurry) June 17, 2016
She also tweeted that Game 6 was “absolutely rigged” following her husband’s ejection. She later deleted the tweet, and said she “tweeted in the heat of the moment because the call was uncalled for.”
The Warriors go back to Oakland for a Game 7 showdown on Sunday night.
