Blazers news: Jusuf Nurkic sued by Pacers fan who had phone thrown

Portland Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic is being sued by the Pacers fan who had his phone thrown by Nurkic after a March 20th loss.

Jusuf Nurkic, the Portland Trail Blazers and a reporter are being sued by the Indiana Pacers fan who had his phone thrown by the Bosnian Beast in a heated courtside incident following Portland's loss to Indiana on March 20th.

Jusuf Nurkic was NOT happy with what this fan said/did, got in his face, and tossed his phone 😳pic.twitter.com/yboKUzVcL1

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) March 21, 2022

Steven Geske, a lacrosse coach at Zionsville High School just north of Indianapolis, has filed suit against Nurkic, the Trail Blazers and Chris Haynes of Yahoo! Sports for purportedly “concocting a lie” that he insulted Nurkic's mother and late grandmother “in an effort to combat negative publicity,” according to Matthew VanTryon of the Indianapolis Star.

Geske “respectfully requests a judgment against Defendants in an amount that will fully and fairly compensate him for his damages, for the costs of this action, and for all other relief just and appropriate in the premises.”

The suit alleges that Geske received “multiple harassing messages, including death threats” in wake of Haynes' reporting about the confrontation with Nurkic. Law enforcement has attended lacrosse practices at Zionsville High School as a measure of protection for Geske, according to the filing, which also states that his “image in his community has been debased” due to “negligently published false statements by Haynes.”

Nurkic was fined $40,000 by the NBA on March 22nd for “confronting a fan courtside and grabbing the fan's cellphone and throwing it into the stands.” That same day, Haynes, a personal friend of Damian Lillard's, reported the fan heckled Nurkic that his mother is “trash” and grandmother is a “b****.” Nurkic's beloved grandmother died of COVID-19 in August 2020.

Geske's suit claims that he did not “insult, comment on or mention Nurkic's mother and grandmother.” Additionally, the suit alleges that Geske's trash talk was described by witnesses as “G-rated” and “humorous.”

[Matthew VanTryon, Indianapolis Star]