Breaking: Bradley Beal under investigation by Florida police after altercation with fan
Bradley Beal reportedly got into a heated altercation with a fan after the Washington Wizards' game against the Orlando Magic on March 21.
Beal and the Wizards (33-42) lost to the Magic (33-43) 122-112. As Beal headed to the locker room after the ball game, a fan said:
"You f**ked me [out of] $1,300, you f**k."
Bradley Beal, furious upon hearing this from the fan and with the loss to Orlando, approached the fan. He knocked his hat off by swatting it away, and said:
"I don’t give a f**k about none of your bets or your parlays, bro. That ain’t why I play the game."
The heated altercation continued but did not escalate further as Beal was escorted to the Wizards' locker room.
The Orlando Police Department is investigating the altercation that transpired and had this to say (per Alex Raskin from The Daily Mail):
"Beal approached [redacted] and with his right hand, swatted his hat off his head. In doing so Beal made contact with the left side of his head, hitting him. [Redacted] did not give Beal permission to touch or strike him. [Redacted] provided me a copy of the footage showing the incident."
The Washington Wizards have provided no updates nor statements on the matter.
NBA Fans and sports betting
Sports betting has been going on since way back, especially in the NBA.
In a Twitch livestream by Kyrie Irving on March 8, the Dallas Mavericks star had this to say on the matter:
"Gambling and sports betting has completely taken the purity and the fun away from the game at times. I'm gonna just be honest with y'all. There’s a difference between being a diehard fan and supporting your team and loving your team versus somebody that’s betting on a parlay.
"Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want anybody wasting their money on me. But goddang this whole community of gamblers has come into the game of basketball."
It will be interesting to see what the fallout from this recent situation will be, as sports betting is causing fans and players to come into conflict.