Russell Westbrook took exception to a young Nuggets fan making contact with him in the third quarter of Tuesday night’s game.
Westbrook briefly chatted with the boy and his father who were seated courtside, and told reporters that fans are given far too much leeway with players.
Russ finished with 22 points, 14 rebounds and 9 assists in the OKC Thunder’s 121-112 road loss in Denver.
Per The Oklahoman:
“He hit me,” Westbrook said, “So I told his dad, ‘be careful, man, you can’t have your son just hitting random people. I don’t know him, he don’t know me. So, just letting him know, ‘You’ve just got to control your kids.’”
At the end of the conversation, Westbrook gave the young fan a reassuring pat on the leg. Westbrook said at first he didn’t know who had touched him. He just felt contact.
“For all fans though, there’s too much leeway for the fans to be able to touch the players and get away with it, and then you can’t react and do the things that we need to do to protect ourselves. … But I can’t do nothing. What am I going to do, hop in the stands? But there has to be some type of rule or some type of boundaries set that you can’t allow that.”
