{"id":261559,"date":"2025-10-30T21:39:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T21:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/261559\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T21:39:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T21:39:07","slug":"nba-punishes-lamelo-ball-for-flipping-off-ref-in-obscene-gesture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/261559\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA punishes LaMelo Ball for flipping off ref in &#8216;obscene gesture&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>LaMelo Ball didn\u2019t lie when he told the referees how he felt about one of their calls \u2014 and now he\u2019s got to pay a hefty fine.<\/p>\n<p>The Hornets\u2019 superstar received a $35,000 fine for \u201cmaking an obscene gesture\u201d during Charlotte\u2019s loss to Miami on Tuesday, per the NBA.<\/p>\n<p>Ball, 24, expressed his frustration to the referees after being called for a charge with 4:02 remaining in the Hornets\u2019 144-117 road setback.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37532089\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/user-expressly-acknowledges-agrees-downloading-114387864.jpg\" alt=\"LaMelo Ball of the Charlotte Hornets with his middle finger extended during a game.\" class=\"wp-image-37532089\"  \/>LaMelo Ball tells the referee he\u2019s No. 1. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>After being whistled with Charlotte trailing 126-105, he quickly flipped off a referee to his right.<\/p>\n<p>He exited the game for good after being called for the technical violation, finishing with 20 points, nine assists and eight rebounds on 6-for-18 shooting in 20 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>For Ball, the $35,000 fine is chump change <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/11\/17\/sports\/nba-fines-hornets-lamelo-ball-100k-for-derogatory-comment\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">compared to the $100,000 hit<\/a> he took last November after making an anti-gay remark.<\/p>\n<p>Ball said, \u201cWe loaded up, no homo,\u201d during a postgame interview after a 115-114 win over the Bucks, and the NBA announced its fine while labeling his remark as \u201can offensive and derogatory comment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37532211\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/user-expressly-acknowledges-agrees-downloading-114381824.jpg\" alt=\"Charlotte Hornets player LaMelo Ball reacts on the court.\" class=\"wp-image-37532211\"  \/>LaMelo Ball and the Hornets are 2-2. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>He later apologized.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI really didn\u2019t mean anything (by it) and don\u2019t want to offend anybody. I\u2019ve got love for everybody, and I don\u2019t discriminate,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/11\/18\/sports\/lamelo-ball-addresses-anti-gay-comment-after-100000-fine\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ball said in November 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The No. 3 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft and son of the boisterous LaVar Ball, the 24-year-old Ball is in his sixth season in the league, all with the Hornets.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s posting his usual gaudy numbers, averaging 26.3 points, 9.5 assists and 8.3 rebounds per game during the team\u2019s 2-2 start.<\/p>\n<p>For his career, Ball has averaged 21.1 points, 7.4 assists and 6.0 rebounds per contest.<\/p>\n<p>The knock on Ball is that the Hornets have not experienced success during his tenure, having last appeared in the postseason in 2016.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>The Hornets posted one winning record in Ball\u2019s first five seasons, winning 43 games in the 2021-22 campaign, and have won 27, 21 and 19 games in the last three seasons, respectively.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>There is some hope that this year\u2019s team can be more competitive and perhaps compete for the Play-In Tournament, and Charlotte has opened the year with wins over fellow bottom-feeders in the Wizards and Nets, and losses to the more competitive Heat and 76ers.<\/p>\n<p>Charlotte faces the struggling Magic on Thursday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LaMelo Ball didn\u2019t lie when he told the referees how he felt about one of their calls \u2014&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[11949,25179,355,57566,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-261559","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-charlotte-hornets","9":"tag-lamelo-ball","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-referees","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}