Hey, fans, don’t touch Timofey Mozgov’s butt
There Timofey Mozgov was, just minding his own business and waiting to inbound the basketball during the fourth quarter of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Friday night game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, when all of a sudden …
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Yep, you just saw what you think you saw: someone reaching out from the stands to give the 7-foot-1 Russian center an unsolicited butt-touch.
After scoring seven points, grabbing nine rebounds, blocking two shots and dishing an assist in 24 minutes of floor time in the Cavs’ 125-99 blowout of the Wolves at Target Center, Mozgov discussed the bad touch with reporters, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com:
“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.” […]
“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?” […]
“I was thinking the other dude touched me,” Mozgov said after seeing the replay on loop. “It was the guy in the second row.”
Hey, guy in the second row? Don’t reach out and touch Timofey Mozgov’s butt. In fact, that goes for everybody. Do me a favor and don’t reach out and touch the butt of Timofey Mozgov, or any player, really. Let’s all just be cool for like a second and not touch players’ butts, or shine lasers in players’ eyes, or rush the court during the game, or anything like that. Just, like, be in/around your seat and watch the game. Could we? Could we just be in/around our seats and watch the game?
It’s unclear whether the guy in the second row wound up getting in any way disciplined for the unwelcome pat, which was a new experience for the 29-year-old Mozgov, who has been playing professionally for nearly 12 years.
“This is the first time they touched me,” he said.
Hopefully, it’s the last … especially in, y’know, the bathing-suit area.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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