An NBA player was ejected from a game and fined when he pointed at another player in a way officials thought resembled a finger gun on Tuesday.
"They said I pointed my finger like a gun at Dudley," Washington Wizards guard Brandon Jennings told the Washington Post.
The ejection and fine came after an on-court argument over a hard pick set by Wizards center Jason Smith on Suns guard Tyler Ulis. That led to a confrontation between Smith and Suns forward Jared Dudley, which escalated to an argument between everybody on the court. In that argument, Jennings can be seen pointing at Dudley.
Not a bad pick from Jason Smith, but Jared Dudley's belly-bump head-butt & for some reason Brandon Jennings' finger-guns. pic.twitter.com/BCjUWynPEN
— Veteran L(W)izard (@Truth_About_It) March 8, 2017
Though the league officially fined Jennings for "making menacing gestures on the playing court," he disputed their claim.
"I was telling Dudley to relax, like, calm down, because you're not that type of guy," Jennings told the Post. "Jason Smith didn't do anything wrong anyway. All he did was set a good pick, so for you to come at a guy like Jason Smith, who's not even a bad guy or don't do things like that—so what are you doing? I was just protecting my teammate."
This isn't the first time the NBA has fined a player for making finger guns on court. The gesture, common to schoolyard playgrounds but apparently too troublesome for the NBA, cost the Miami Heat's Gerald Green $25,000 in 2015.
Gerald Green's shooting celebration pic.twitter.com/FjTdAHxSIl
— CJ Fogler #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) October 22, 2015
Nobody was reportedly injured by either players' finger gun gestures.