NBA Fines Eight Players for Fighting

Eight players, including Chuck Person of Indiana and Bernard King of Washington, were fined a total of $10,500 by the NBA today for fights over the weekend.

Person received the largest fine, $4,000, for his part in a fight with King that spilled into the front row of the stands during Sunday’s game in Baltimore. A child in the first row was shaken up but uninjured after a player fell into the stands.

King was fined $1,000 for retaliating against Person, “which added to the escalation of the incident,” NBA Vice President Rod Thorn said.

George McCloud and LaSalle Thompson of Indiana and Harvey Grant of the Bullets each were fined $500 for leaving their bench during the incident in the third quarter.

Danny Ainge of the Sacramento Kings was fined $2,000 and Delaney Rudd of the Utah Jazz was fined $1,500 for their fight Saturday night. Ainge received the larger fine as the instigator, Thorn said. Karl Malone of Utah was fined $500 for leaving the bench during the incident.

In Baltimore, the tension escalated all the way to the coaches, Dick Versace of the Pacers and Wes Unseld of the Bullets. They got into a shouting match that Versace said included a threat of violence by Unseld.

“That’s his answer to everything,” Versace said. “He wants to fight.”

Unseld called Versace a liar.