The NBA fined Los Angeles Clippers guard Austin Rivers $25,000 on Thursday for "throwing a seat cushion into the spectator stands" during Wednesday's season-opening win over the Sacramento Kings.
The cushion chuck in question came at the 7:47 mark of the fourth quarter at Sleep Train Arena on Wednesday night, in the opening game of the season for both the Clippers and the Kings:
The woman struck by the cushion was a Kings season ticket-holder, according to CSNBayArea.com:
The Clippers travel with their own seat cushions, which are five or six inches thick to make life on the bench more comfortable for tall NBA players. It made for a substantial projectile, which knocked out one of the woman's contact lenses.
Following a Clippers timeout with the Kings storming back into the game, Rivers was seen punching a chair on the end of the bench before launching the seat cushion. He did not look up to see where it landed.
The cushion connecting with a fan prompted the league to take a closer look and ultimately levy the fine, according to Sam Amick of USA TODAY:
The situation caused a stir among Kings fans on hand, as the woman who was hit by the cushion in the second row was clearly experiencing discomfort in her eyes for quite some time after the incident.
Rivers finished with three points (0-for-3 from the field, 3-for-4 from the foul line), two rebounds, two steals, one assist, one block and one turnover in 16 minutes off the bench in L.A.'s 111-104 victory. He signed a two-year, $6.4 million contract this summer to stay with a Clippers club run by his father, head coach and president of basketball operations Doc Rivers, after he joined the team in a midseason trade this past January.
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