The NBA has fined the two players at the centre of an on-court altercation earlier this week.
Luguentz Dort of the Oklahoma City Thunder and Jeremiah Fears of the New Orleans Pelicans were each fined $25,000 for their roles in the scrum, the league announced Thursday.
The incident occurred in the dying seconds of a game that the Thunder won 104-95. As the final horn sounded, Dort and Fears exchanged shoves and grabbed each other's jerseys before being separated by teammates.
The incident was just one of many scrums between the two teams in the final minutes of the game. Afterward, Thunder star Jaylin Williams, who was involved in a different scrum with Pelicans wing Saddiq Bey, said the high emotions were just part of the competitive nature of both teams.
"I saw two teams that are competing against each other," Williams said of the incidents at the end of the game, according to video shared by Andrew Schlecht of The Athletic. "You play a game and guys are bumping, you're fouling, you're doing things like that. ... It's two teams that wanna compete at the highest level. Of course, tempers are gonna get high. That's all it is, just two teams that wanna play. Play hard and it gets to that ... and outside of it, it's nothing more than what it was on the court."
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