Fan grabs backside of Cavs' Mozgov during game
MINNEAPOLIS — A fan got a little too hands-on for Timofey Mozgov‘s liking in the fourth quarter of the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ 125-99 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night, reaching out and grabbing Mozgov’s behind while Mozgov was preparing to inbound the ball from the sideline.
“Somebody touched me,” Mozgov, the Cavs’ center, said while sitting in the visitors locker room after the game.
Asked where he felt the fan’s hand on his body, Mozgov, a native of Russia, replied: “My English is not good. I’d say bad words.”
Cavaliers public relations did not know whether the fan was ejected or if any other security action was taken.
Initially, Mozgov said he believed the culprit was a fan sitting in a courtside seat behind him.
“Yeah, I looked at this dude,” he said. “He smiled. Like, I don’t know why he touched me. But, you know, the game was going on, so I got to throw it out and keep running the game, right?”
A reporter then showed Mozgov a replay of the incident on his phone, allowing Mozgov to see that the violator actually was standing behind the first row of seats when he went in for the squeeze.
“I was thinking the other dude touched me,” Mozgov said after seeing the replay on loop. “It was the guy in the second row.”
Word quickly spread throughout the Cavs’ locker room, with the reporter’s phone being passed from player to player to see what happened.
“That’s not the craziest thing I’ve seen in my day,” LeBron James said, “but it is pretty wild.”
Kevin Love brought up a clip of a fan in Orlando making similarly inappropriate contact with the backside of Washington’s Ramon Sessions when he fell into the courtside seats during a Wizards-Magic game earlier this season.
Mozgov said he is used to interacting with the fans, but nothing like he experienced Friday.
“This is the first time they touched me,” Mozgov said. “You know, they always, like your hands, high-five, hug, taking pictures. But not like that.”
Asked whether he had anything else to say about the bizarre moment, Mozgov simply shook his head and said, “I don’t know, guys.”
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