Iverson Is Fined for Remark to Fans

Allen Iverson was fined $5,000 by the NBA on Friday for shouting a derogatory remark about gays toward taunting fans.

The Philadelphia 76er guard said he was responding to a barrage of insults and racial slurs from the crowd last Sunday in Indianapolis. Iverson’s comments were recorded by NBC.

Iverson said he was called a “monkey” and another racial epithet.

“That’s the worst I’ve heard it in my career,” he told The Philadelphia Inquirer on Tuesday.

“They called me jailbird . . . waving their middle finger at me. Everything. Screaming behind the bench the whole time, and nothing was done about it,” he said.

The fine, announced by NBA executive Stu Jackson, cited Iverson for “directing profanity towards fans.”

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Portland forward Rasheed Wallace was suspended for two games without pay and fined $10,000 by the league for hitting an official with a towel Thursday night. Wallace charged official Gary Benson near midcourt and threw a towel that hit the referee in the face.

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Guard Nick Van Exel said official Steve Javie has it in for him and the Denver Nuggets.

In four of the last five Denver games officiated by Javie, someone from the team has been ejected. The latest ejection happened Wednesday when Coach Dan Issel was tossed for defending his player.

“[Javie] comes up to me and tells me that ‘you’re a miserable person’ and basically laughs in your face--and with a smirk, like, ‘You can’t do anything about it,’ ” Van Exel said.

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Utah Jazz Coach Jerry Sloan, already the NBA’s longest-tenured coach, signed a three-year contract extension that runs through the 2003-04 season. His current contract would have expired after this season. . . . Seattle’s Gary Payton strained an abdominal muscle Thursday night against the Chicago Bulls and is questionable for tonight’s game at Utah. Jazz guard John Starks, mourning his mother’s death, went home to Oklahoma and won’t return for the game. . . . Geoff Petrie, the Sacramento Kings’ vice president of basketball operations, received a multiyear contract extension. . . . The partnership that holds a 48.3% interest in the Boston Celtics revealed that it lost more than $4.8 million in a six-month period.