If you caught Wednesday night’s game between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Oklahoma City Thunder, you saw one Philly fan do this towards Thunder guard Russell Westbrook:
Immediately after this happened, everyone wanted to know this dude’s identity (and, if you’re Jeff Van Gundy, why Westbrook wasn’t allowed to go into the stands and beat the hell out of him). As it turns out, Philly.com learned that this Sixers fan is named Richard Harkaway, and when he’s not trying to get a rise out of All-NBA guards, he’s a urologist in Philadelphia.
So not only did a doctor try to get into a fight with Russell Westbrook, but Harkaway claims that the reason he got so mad was Westbrook made fun of him for his weight. In a statement released on Thursday by a personal representative to Philly.com, Harkaway said…
“As a part-time comedian I realize that my words and actions are sometimes inappropriate. In this instance, after standing up to boo and being provoked by Russell Westbrook calling attention to my being overweight, my action in response was clearly inexcusable and I am embarrassed. I sincerely apologize to my fellow Sixers fans, the Sixers organization, my colleagues and patients, and to Mr. Westbrook for my behavior.”
Of course, if Westbrook made fun of this fan’s weight and provoked him into doing something, then you kind of understand where Harkaway is coming from. There is a slow motion video of Westbrook screaming into the crowd after he converted a layup prior to getting flipped off, but it’s kind of hard to make out exactly what he’s saying.
Sixers fan on baseline just gave Russell Westbrook the double birds after an and-1. Westbrook reaction: pic.twitter.com/KwTeswmFJv
— Erik Horne (@ErikkHorne) October 27, 2016
Westbrook does this all the time – after he does something impressive, he’ll scream something out to no one in particular to amp himself up – but maybe he really did throw shade at Harkaway. If you’re an expert at lip reading and you can tell exactly what Westbrook is saying, please let us know if Westbrook smack talked a doctor or if Harkaway’s stretching the truth.
(Via Philly.com)
